by Calculated Risk on 9/30/2011 01:49:00 PM
Friday, September 30, 2011
Hotels: Occupancy Rate increased 4.1 percent compared to same week in 2010
Note: This is one of the industry specific measures that I follow. I only post this every few weeks or so.
From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: US hotel results week ending 24 September
In year-over-year comparisons for the week, occupancy rose 4.1 percent to 66.8 percent, average daily rate increased 4.0 percent to US$107.24, and revenue per available room finished the week up 8.3 percent to US$71.65.Note: ADR: Average Daily Rate, RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room.
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using a four week average for the occupancy rate.

We are now headed into the fall business travel season. The 4-week average of the occupancy rate will increase again seasonally. For the month of September, the 4 week average of the hotel occupancy rate has been back to the pre-recession median level.
Even though the occupancy rate has recovered, ADR and RevPAR are still about 3% lower than before the recession for the comparable week.

This shows the decline in the occupancy rate during and following the 2001 recession. The sharp decline in 2001 was related to 9/11, and the sharp increase towards the end of 2005 was due to Hurricane Katrina.
The occupancy rate really fell off a cliff in 2008, and has slowly recovered back to the median.
Data Source: Smith Travel Research, Courtesy of HotelNewsNow.com