by Calculated Risk on 2/25/2010 11:49:00 AM

From HotelNewsNow.com: Seattle tops US hotel weekly results

Overall, the industry’s occupancy ended the week with a 2.4-percent increase to 55.4 percent, ADR dropped 4.4 percent to US$95.81, and RevPAR fell 2.2 percent to US$53.04.

The following graph shows the occupancy rate by week since 2000, and the rolling 52 week average occupancy rate.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

Note: the scale doesn't start at zero to better show the change.

The graph shows the distinct seasonal pattern for the occupancy rate; higher in the summer because of leisure/vacation travel, and lower on certain holidays.

The second graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in occupancy (using a three week average).

This is a multi-year slump, and the YoY change suggests that occupancy rate may have bottomed, but at a very low level.

As Smith Travel noted, room rates are still falling (off 4.4%) because of the low occupancy rate. Business travel will be very important for the next few months, and right now it appears the weekday occupancy rate (mostly business travel) is at about the same levels as last year during the worst of the recession.

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