HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Reflecting concerns and cancellations around the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. hotel industry reported negative year-over-year results in three key performance metrics during the week of March 1-7, 2020, according to new data from STR.
In comparison with the week of March 3-9, 2019, the industry recorded a 7.3 percent drop in occupancy to 61.8 percent; a 4.6 percent decline in average daily rate (ADR) to $126.01; and an 11.6 percent fall in revenue per available room (RevPAR) to $77.82. Performance declines were uniform across chain scales, classes, and location types.
“The question over the last several weeks was ‘when’, not ‘if’ this impact would hit—well, ‘when’ has arrived,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior vice president of lodging insights. “Like so many other areas of the world, concerns around the coronavirus outbreak have now hit U.S. hotel occupancy hard. Not a surprise, given the amount of event-related news we have seen, but group cancellations were felt across the markets and classes in addition to consistent declines in the transient segment. ADR is starting to decline as well, rapidly in the case of San Francisco. This is quite likely the beginning of a bad run that will get worse before it gets better.”
Overall, 23 of the Top 25 Markets registered a RevPAR decline during the week of March 1-7, 2020.
San Francisco/San Mateo, California, posted the week’s steepest drop in RevPAR (down 45.5 percent to $134.26), due largely to the largest decline in ADR (down 30.4 percent to $212.61). Anaheim/Santa Ana, California, experienced the largest drop in occupancy (down 27.3 percent to 59.6 percent) and the second-largest decreases in ADR (down 19.9 percent to $155.14) and RevPAR (down 41.8 percent to $92.42). Seattle saw the second-steepest decrease in occupancy (down 26.4 percent to 52.3 percent), which pushed the third-largest drop in RevPAR (down 34.8 percent to $67.94). Of note, New York occupancy fell 13.1 percent to 72.1 percent, while ADR in the market was down 8.3 percent to $188.59.
Two markets saw occupancy growth for the week of March 1-7: Detroit, Michigan (up 1.9 percent to 62.2 percent), and Nashville, Tennessee (up 1.8 percent to 75.8 percent). Two markets reported ADR increases: Oahu Island, Hawaii (up 1.7 percent to $223.05), and Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia (up 1.3 percent to $85.46).
