HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee, and MILWAUKEE—The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index jumped 10.5 percent in December to a level of 6,760. For 2023, the stock index was up 38.4 percent.
“Hotel stocks—like the broader market—finished 2023 on a high note as the ‘soft landing’ narrative and lower interest rate outlook continued to boost investor sentiment and valuation multiples,” said Michael Bellisario, senior hotel research analyst and director at Baird. “Both the hotel brands and hotel REITs were up more than 10 percent in December and outperformed their respective benchmarks. For the year, the hotel REITs’ 19 percent gain more than doubled the return of real estate stocks broadly, while the hotel brands’ 44 percent increase nearly doubled the performance of the S&P 500.”
“The U.S. hotel industry finished the year on solid footing,” said Amanda Hite, STR president. “RevPAR rose 5 percent from the previous year, with growth driven by the first quarter’s 10.4 percent increase due to a comparison against Omicron-impacted months in 2022. In the remaining quarters, RevPAR growth averaged 3.1 percent, which is above the long-term quarterly average of 2.9 percent. Occupancy continued to close the gap to 2019 levels, while absolute ADR and RevPAR remained well above that benchmark on a nominal basis and narrowed the gap on an inflation-adjusted basis. Overall, it was a solid and ‘normal’ year for the industry.”
In December, the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index surpassed the performance of both the S&P 500 (up 4.4 percent) and the MSCI US REIT Index (up 9.0 percent).
The Hotel Brand sub-index increased 10.4 percent from November to 12,841, while the Hotel REIT sub-index jumped 10.6 percent to 1,236.
