by Calculated Risk on 7/29/2010 01:17:00 PM

Hotel occupancy is one of several industry specific indicators I follow ...

From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: Strong luxury results week ending 24 July

Overall [year over year], the industry’s occupancy increased 7.3 percent to 71.8 percent, ADR rose 1.3 percent to US$99.60, and RevPAR increased 8.6 percent to US$71.54.

The following graph shows the four week moving average for the occupancy rate by week for 2008, 2009 and 2010 (and a median for 2000 through 2007).

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

Notes: the scale doesn't start at zero to better show the change. The graph shows the 4-week average, not the weekly occupancy rate.

On a 4-week basis, occupancy is up 7.0% compared to last year (the worst year since the Great Depression) and 4.8% below the median for 2000 through 2007.

On a weekly basis this is the second week since summer 2008 with the occupancy rate above 70%. However last week was probably the peak for the occupancy rate for 2010 - although the 4-week average will move up over the next few weeks.

In 2009, the occupancy rate peaked at 67% in mid-July.

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