by Calculated Risk on 5/14/2009 01:36:00 PM

From HotelNewsNow: Hotel industry enters 18th month of recession

Economic research firm e-forecasting.com in conjunction with Smith Travel Research announced that following a decline of 3.7 percent in March, HIP went down 1.1 percent in April. HIP, the Hotel Industry's Pulse index, is a composite indicator that gauges business activity in the U.S. hotel industry in real-time. The latest decrease brought the index to a reading of 84.2.
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“With April’s reading of HIP, the hotel industry is creeping up to the weak performance of the industry during the recession in 1981-1982, which lasted 20 months. Even still, there is some promise in April’s reading as it appears the decline may have hit a bottom, looking at the six-month growth rate and monthly decline,” noted Evangelos Simos, chief economist of e-forecasting.com.

See article for graph of HPI.

Also from HotelNewsNow.com: STR reports US hotel performance for week ending 9 May 2009

In year-over-year measurements, the industry’s occupancy fell 14.0 percent to end the week at 53.6 percent. Average daily rate dropped 9.8 percent to finish the week at US$97.58. Revenue per available room for the week decreased 22.4 percent to finish at US$52.32.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the YoY change in the occupancy rate (3 week trailing average).

The three week average is off 12.1% from the same period in 2008. The comparable week off 14.0%.

The average daily rate is down 9.8%, so RevPAR is off 22.4% from the same week last year.

Data Source: Smith Travel Research, Courtesy of HotelNewsNow.com