U.S. Hotel Industry Reports April 2017 Increase in ADR and RevPAR

According to data from STR, the U.S. hotel industry reported mixed results in the three key performance metrics for April 2017.

In a year-on-year comparison with April 2016, the industry reported a -0.7% decrease in Occupancy to 67.5%, ADR grew by 2.4% to US$126.26 and RevPAR increased 1.7% to US$85.19.

“We saw the opposite of the previous month with performance negatively affected by the Easter calendar shift (March 2016 to April 2017),” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights. “Group occupancy in particular was down 12.5% year-on-year as meeting planners avoided the time around the holiday. Even with that decline in the group segment and supply growth continuing around 2%, the absolute occupancy level was the second-highest for any April on record.”

Among the Top 25 Markets, Orlando, Florida, posted the largest increase in RevPAR (+17.6% to US$112.83), driven primarily by the month’s only double-digit rise in ADR (+10.0% to US$132.55). Occupancy in the market rose 6.9% to 85.1%.

“Orlando is obviously a popular destination market, so while many major markets reported negative results around Easter, Orlando saw a boost with transient demand likely lifted by school breaks and family vacations.”

Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia, saw the largest increase in occupancy (+8.2% to 68.4%) and the only other double-digit lift in RevPAR (+11.6% to US$64.99).

Other top RevPAR increases were reported in Seattle, Washington (+8.4% to US$109.40); Anaheim/Santa Ana, California (+8.1% to US$122.85); and Phoenix, Arizona (+8.0% to US$111.26).

New Orleans, Louisiana, reported the steepest declines across the three key performance metrics. Occupancy fell 7.8% to 73.3%, ADR was down 12.4% to US$157.45 and RevPAR dropped 19.2% to US$115.43.

Houston, Texas, was the only other Top 25 Market to show a double-digit decrease in RevPAR (-13.5% to US$67.33).

“More than half of the Top 25 Markets experienced a RevPAR decline for the month, but that is not a surprise with the Easter shift,” Freitag said. “Overall, all other markets (RevPAR: +2.1%) outperformed the major markets (+0.8%). That also is not surprising given that supply growth is 100 basis points higher in the Top 25.”

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