HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. hotel industry reported mostly positive results across three key performance metrics for Q3 2019, according to new data from STR. While occupancy decreased by 0.1 percent year-over-year to 70.9 percent, the industry posted positive results for both average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR), which increased 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, compared with Q3 2018. ADR reached $133.25 and RevPAR hit $94.42.
“While RevPAR increased slightly, it was the lowest year-over-year percent change in the metric since the first quarter of 2010, and the first quarter during the current cycle to show an increase in the metric below 1.0 percent,” said Bobby Bowers, STR’s senior vice president of operations. “While demand growth slowed to 1.8 percent, the industry sold more nights than any other Q3 in history. Keeping in line with that theme, third-quarter room revenue reached $46.5 billion, the highest quarterly room revenue figure in STR’s U.S. database.”
The industry’s current cycle, which began in March 2010, is now at 115 months, with year-over-year RevPAR increases in 112 of those months. The three decreases during this run came in September 2018 (down 0.3 percent), June 2019 (down 0.4 percent), and September 2019 (down 0.3 percent).
Q3 2019 Performance in the Top 25 Markets
Among the Top 25 Markets as defined by STR, Phoenix registered the largest jump in RevPAR in Q3 2019, with an increase of 5.3 percent to $60.57. Houston had the highest rise in occupancy—up 4.4 percent to 62.4 percent. Hotels in the Washington, D.C., market posted the largest lift in ADR—up 4 percent to $148.43.
Two markets matched for the steepest decline in RevPAR—Seattle and Miami saw RevPAR drop 5.1 percent to $154.70 and $101.68, respectively. Seattle reported the largest drop in ADR in Q3 2019 (down 4 percent to $185.35), and Orlando experienced the steepest decrease in occupancy (down 5 percent to 69.6 percent).
