HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn., and MILWAUKEE — The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index increased 6.1 percent in December to 5,270. For the total year, the stock index jumped 29.5 percent in 2019.
“Hotel stocks ended the year on a positive note, and both the hotel brands and the hotel REITs outperformed their respective benchmarks in December,” said Michael Bellisario, senior hotel research analyst and vice president at Baird. “The positive stock market momentum continued into year-end, and investor expectations appear to be pricing in an improvement in the global growth outlook. For 2019, the Hotel Brand Sub-Index increased nearly 40 percent and significantly outpaced the Hotel REIT Sub-Index’s approximate 10 percent gain.”
“We’ve not seen it much in recent months, but December was a case where stock performance seemed aligned with industry metrics,” said Amanda Hite, STR’s president. “December data is expected to provide a bit of a relief from the otherwise anemic growth rates the industry posted throughout the year. That said, we do not expect one month to materially change the trajectory of year-end results as RevPAR growth should come in around the expected sub-1 percent level. Regardless, the industry posted another record year with regards to rooms available, rooms sold, and rooms revenue. Likewise, absolute ADR and RevPAR are at their highest levels ever. We’re not currently projecting much of a change in either direction for 2020 as slower growth is the name of the game as we enter the 13th year of the RevPAR upcycle.”
December performance of the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index surpassed both the S&P 500 (up 2.9 percent) and the MSCI US REIT Index (down 1.3 percent).
The Hotel Brand sub-index rose 7.1 percent from November to 8,605 while the Hotel REIT sub-index increased 3.7 percent to 1,529.
