STR data for 26 April through 2 May 2020 showed slightly higher U.S. hotel occupancy compared with previous weeks, but the same significant level of year-over-year decline in the three key performance metrics.
In comparison with the week of 28 April through 4 May 2019, the industry recorded the following:
- Occupancy: -58.5% to 28.6%
- Average daily rate (ADR): -44.0% to US$74.72
- Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -76.8% to US$21.39
Previous weekly U.S. absolute occupancy:
- April 19-25 2020: 26.0%
- April 12-18 2020: 23.4%
- April 5-11 2020: 21.0%
“Week-to-week comparisons showed a third consecutive increase in room demand, which provides further hope that early-April was the performance bottom,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights. “TSA checkpoint numbers, up for the second week in a row, aligned with this rise in hotel guest activity, which still remains incredibly low in the big picture. Overall, these last few weeks can be filed under the ‘less bad’ category.
“At the same time, this past week was the first to show solid evidence of leisure demand as weekend occupancy grew in states that have significantly eased mitigation efforts. As we have noted throughout the pandemic, the leisure segment will be the first to show a demand bounce back. In weeks prior, the more reasonable conclusion was that hotels were selling mostly to essential worker types.”
Aggregate data for the Top 25 Markets showed larger year-over-year declines than the national averages: occupancy (-64.8% to 27.0%), ADR (-51.1% to US$81.28) and RevPAR (-82.8% to US$21.92).
Among those Top 25 Markets, Oahu Island, Hawaii, experienced the largest drop in occupancy (-88.7%) and the only single-digit absolute occupancy level (9.7%). The decline in occupancy resulted in the steepest decrease in RevPAR (-93.5% to US$13.93).
Boston, Massachusetts, posted the largest decline in ADR (-60.5% to US$90.01).
Of note, absolute occupancy in New York, New York, was 44.9%, up from 41.0% the previous week.
In Seattle, Washington, occupancy was 23.8%, up from 22.4% the week prior.