HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. hotel industry reported positive results across three key performance metrics during December 2019, according to data from STR. In a year-over-year comparison with December 2018, the industry posted a 0.6 percent increase in occupancy to 54.4 percent, a 2 percent increase in average daily rate (ADR) to $126.84, and a 2.6 percent increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) to $69.00.
“The year went out with a bang, so to speak, as December’s RevPAR increase matched February for the highest of 2019,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior vice president of lodging insights. “The ADR increase of 2 percent was the highest rate of change in the past 14 months, and occupancy increased 0.6 percent, driven up by healthy room demand growth of 2.8 percent. Part of the outperformance can be attributed to the group segment with increases of 6.6 percent and 4.2 percent in occupancy and ADR, respectively.”
“The overall performance provided a bit of a lift to the total-year numbers but not a significant change overall,” Freitag added. “Each of the key performance metrics is at an all-time high, but we’re not forecasting much of a shift away from an environment of slow to no growth that has developed over the last year-plus.”
Overall, 20 of the Top 25 Markets recorded a RevPAR increase. Chicago recorded the largest spike in RevPAR (up 18.4 percent to $69.30) as well as the highest rise in occupancy (up 7.3 percent to 56.6 percent) and the only double-digit lift in ADR (up 10.4 percent to $122.48). Phoenix saw the second-largest jumps in occupancy (up 6.1 percent to 63.4 percent) and RevPAR (up 13 percent to $74.14). San Francisco/San Mateo, Calif., posted the second-largest lift in ADR (up 7 percent to $204.62) and the only other double-digit rise in RevPAR (up 10 percent to $147.89).
Of the Top 25 Markets where RevPAR declined, San Diego, Calif., reported the steepest drop in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (down 6.3 percent to 62.7 percent), ADR (down 5.4 percent to $135.50), and RevPAR (down 11.4 percent to $85.01). Nashville registered the second-largest drops in occupancy (down 2.3 percent to 57.4 percent) and RevPAR (down 3.3 percent to $74.28).
