by Calculated Risk on 6/04/2020 05:00:00 PM

From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: US hotel results for week ending 30 May

STR data ending with 30 May showed another small rise from previous weeks in U.S. hotel performance. Year-over-year declines remained significant although not as severe as the levels recorded previously.

24-30 May 2020 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019):

• Occupancy: 36.6% (-43.2%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$82.94 (-33.3%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$30.34 (-62.1%)

“A seventh consecutive week of higher demand and occupancy was highlighted by three submarkets actually showing positive year-over-year occupancy comparisons for the weekend,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights. “Two of those areas, Titusville/Cocoa Beach and Melbourne/Palm Bay, likely received a boosted from the SpaceX launch activities on Saturday. The third submarket, Corpus Christi, further supports previous analysis that there is demand ready to return, but for now, it is more visible from leisure sources and in destinations that are set up well for drive-to business.

“Because the situation intensified more toward the end of the week, and because there has not been a great deal of demand in downtown areas because of the pandemic, there wasn’t a noticeable impact from protests and the unrest occurring in major cities. That is something to monitor in our next dataset and perhaps beyond depending on how the situation plays out.”
emphasis added

The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.

Click on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2020, dash light blue is 2019, blue is the median, and black is for 2009 (the worst year probably since the Great Depression for hotels).

During 2009 (black line), many hotels were struggling. At this point in the year, the 4-week average in 2009 was 56%. Now it is just at 33.6%! (The median is 65%).

Note: Y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the seasonal change.