US hotel performance dips

NFL playoff games, primary elections and other events boosted hotel revenues in some markets, but U.S. hotel performance overall was down for the week ending Jan. 20

U.S. hotel occupancy for the week came in at 52.2%, down 1.1 percentage points from the previous week. That dip was expected due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which traditionally is not a travel holiday and mutes business-transient demand for hotels.

Key takeaways

• A 2.1-percentage-point occupancy decline year over year was not anticipated, but can be attributed in part to the severe winter weather that affected most of the country during the week;
• Despite weaker occupancy, average daily rate was up 1.6% year over year, but that gain was insufficient to lift revenue per available room, which dropped 2.2%;
• Over the next several weeks, U.S. hotel performance is expected to steadily improve as business and group travel return, reaching a seasonal peak in mid-March.

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