Hotels in U.S. Report Increase in ADR and RevPAR; Denver RevPAR Up 11.5%

According to data compiled by STR, the U.S. hotel industry reported mixed results in the three key performance metrics for August 2015.

In year-on-year results, the U.S. hotel industry’s occupancy rates decreased 1.4% to 70.7%; ADR was up 3.6% to US$122.32; and RevPAR increased 2.2% to US$86.46.

Performance results for the month were skewed by a later Labor Day weekend, according to Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP for lodging insights.

“Labor Day weekend not only fell in an earlier week last year, it actually fell in the previous month,” Freitag said. “Room demand declined for the first time in 69 months - it had been growing since October 2009. ‘Decline’ is sort of a harsh word; a 0.3% demand drop is basically flat performance. In August, the industry lost some 306,000 rooms compared to last year. That said, total demand was still just below 110 million room nights which, by the way, is the fourth best room demand month ever.”

Despite the decrease in occupancy, RevPAR in the U.S. has now increased year-on-year for 66 consecutive months.

Among the Top 25 Markets, Denver, Colorado, reported the only double-digit increases in ADR (+10.0% to US$128.16) and RevPAR (+11.5% to US$109.64). Occupancy in the market increased 1.4% to 85.5%.

Dallas, Texas, followed in RevPAR growth with an 8.4% increase to US$64.08.

St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois, reported the largest decrease in RevPAR, down 5.7% to US$65.96.

Seattle, Washington, saw the second largest increase in ADR, up 9.8% to US$180.13.

The largest drop in ADR was reported in New York, New York (-3.3% to US$232.76).

Phoenix, Arizona (+4.9% to 54.6%), experienced the most significant rise in occupancy, while Houston, Texas (-7.6% to 65.5%), saw the steepest occupancy decline.

“The Top 25 Markets once again outperformed the nation,” Freitag said. “Occupancy was 75.7%, but this was down 1.4% from last year - the same drop as the total U.S.”