HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee, and MILWAUKEE — The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index dropped 8.2 percent in January 2021 to a level of 4,199.
“Hotel stocks pulled back in January and significantly underperformed the broader indices as the vaccine rollout and reopening narrative lost some momentum,” said Michael Bellisario, senior hotel research analyst and director at Baird. “The ‘pent-up demand’ thesis remains topical for bullish investors and industry participants, especially on the leisure travel front, but the more important intermediate- to long-term recovery needs to come from the business traveler, for which a rebound appears further out, in our opinion.”
“Performance for these openings months of the year will resemble some of the slowest of 2020,” said Amanda Hite, STR president. “Once vaccine distribution becomes more widespread and the pandemic numbers improve, we should see better travel conditions that will push recovery. Our latest forecast points to Q3 as the period with more meaningful recovery of corporate and group business.”
The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index fell behind both the S&P 500 (down 1.1 percent) and the MSCI US REIT Index (unchanged) in January 2021.
The Hotel Brand sub-index dropped 9.1 percent from December to 7,239, while the Hotel REIT sub-index decreased 5.3 percent to 1,056.
