Hotels: Occupancy Rate Declined Slightly Year-over-year | Risk Management

From HotelNewsNow.com: US hotel results for week ending 13 October

The U.S. hotel industry reported mixed year-over-year results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 7-13 October 2018, according to data from STR.

In comparison with the week of 8-14 October 2017, the industry recorded the following:

• Occupancy: -0.7% to 71.9%
• Average daily rate (ADR): +1.6% to US$132.76
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +0.8% to US$95.42
…
Due to difficult-to-match year-over-year comparisons, Houston, Texas, experienced the steepest declines in occupancy (-25.0% to 63.9%) and RevPAR (-31.3% to US$67.70). Houston’s hotel performance was lifted in the weeks and months that followed Hurricane Harvey in 2017 as properties filled with displaced residents, relief workers, insurance adjustors, media members, etc.
emphasis added

The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.

Click on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2018, dash light blue is 2017, blue is the median, and black is for 2009 (the worst year probably since the Great Depression for hotels).

The occupancy rate, to date, is just ahead of the record year in 2017.

Note: 2017 finished strong due to the impact of the hurricanes. There will be some boost to hotel occupancy in the Carolina and Florida regions following hurricanes Florence and Michael, but I expect the overall occupancy to be lower in 2018 than in 2017.

Data Source: STR, Courtesy of HotelNewsNow.com