HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Showing further COVID-19 impact, the U.S. hotel industry reported negative year-over-year results in the three key performance metrics during the week of March 8-14, 2020, according to data from STR. In comparison with the week of March 10-16, 2019, the industry recorded a 24.4 percent drop in occupancy to 53 percent, a 10.7 percent dip in average daily rate (ADR) to $120.30, and a 32.5 percent decline in revenue per available room (RevPAR) to $63.74. Performance declines were uniform across chain scales, classes, and location types.
“To no surprise, the hurt continued and intensified for hotels around the country,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior vice president of lodging insights. “The performance declines were especially pronounced in hotels that cater to meetings and group business, which is a reflection of the latest batch of event cancellations and government guidance to restrict the size of gatherings.”
“The questions we are hearing the most right now are around how far occupancy will drop and how long this will last,” Freitag continued. “Through comparative analysis of the occupancy trends in China and Italy over the past weeks, we can with certainty say that we are not yet close to the bottom in the U.S. However, the timeline for that decline and the eventual recovery are much tougher to predict because there is still so much uncertainty around the COVID-19 case numbers in the U.S. and how serious citizens are when practicing social distancing. China and Italy saw a more abrupt decline in occupancy because of stricter lockdowns. That will dictate the speed of recovery.”
Market Performance
During the week of March 8-14, 2020, each of the Top 25 Markets registered double-digit occupancy and RevPAR decreases. ADR was also down in each market.
Seattle, Washington, saw the steepest declines in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy declined 55 percent to 32.9 percent, ADR declined 24.7 percent to $109.28), and RevPAR declined 66.1 percent to $35.97.
San Francisco/San Mateo, California, posted the week’s second-largest drop in RevPAR (down 63.3 percent to $68.56), due to the second-steepest decreases in occupancy (down 51.6 percent to 38.9 percent) and ADR (down 24.2 percent to $176.38).
New York experienced the third-largest declines in occupancy (down 43.9 percent to 48.8 percent) and RevPAR (down 54.6 percent to $88.29).
New Orleans, Louisiana, posted the third-steepest drop in ADR (down 22.8 percent to $138.11).
