July 2011 - Record Month for US Hotel Industry

According to data from STR, the U.S. hotel industry in July 2011 reported the largest number of rooms sold during a single month. The industry reported a 3.6% increase in demand for the month with more than 105 million room nights sold.

This is only the second time the industry has sold more than 100 million room nights in any given month, the last time being July 2010.

"July continues to impress," said Brad Garner, COO at STR. "The industry topped 105 million room nights sold (for the month), outpacing last year's record-setting 102 million rooms sold. While the demand storyline continues to be very compelling, the broken record of stubborn rate growth is still spinning on the turntable. We're still bullish on demand for hotel rooms, however, given recent economic news, we will be watching to see if consumers tap on the brakes."

Overall, the U.S. hotel industry's occupancy increased 2.9% to 69.9%, ADR ended the month up 3.9% to US$103.09, and RevPAR rose 6.9% to US$72.07.

Among the Top 25 Markets, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, reported the largest occupancy increase, rising 13.5% to 61.5%, followed by Phoenix, Arizona (+11.6% to 48.4%), and Miami-Hialeah, Florida (+11.4% to 75.8%). New Orleans, Louisiana, fell 15.6% in occupancy to 61.3%, reporting the largest occupancy decrease, followed by Oahu Island, Hawaii, with a 6.9% decrease to 83.4%.

Among the Chain Scale segments, the Luxury segment (+3.5% to 74.2%) and the Independent segment (+3.4% to 68.6%) achieved the largest occupancy increases for the month. None of the Chain Scale segments reported occupancy decreases.

See recent travel news from: Travel News Asia, STR, July 2011