by Calculated Risk on 2/09/2012 01:07:00 PM

From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: Upper-midscale hotels top weekly gains

Overall, the U.S. hotel industry’s occupancy was up 5.5% to 51.7%, its ADR increased 3.1% to US$100.45 and RevPAR was up 8.7% to US$51.98.

This is the weak season for hotel occupancy, but this is solid improvement over the same week last year. 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.

Click on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2012, yellow is for 2011, blue is "normal" and black is for 2009 - the worst year since the Great Depression for hotels.

Hotel occupancy is running above 2011, but the 4-week average of the occupancy rate is still below normal. Looking forward, business travel usually increases in the March to May period, and it will be interesting to see if the occupancy rate gets close to 64% for that period.

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