by Calculated Risk on 3/24/2011 10:43:00 PM

Here is the weekly update on hotels from HotelNewsNow.com: STR: U.S. ADR on the rise

“The industry’s performance seems to be strengthening after Valentine's Day and heading into Spring Break season,” said Steve Hood, VP of research at STR. “Last week was the fifth straight week with ADR increases in the 3% range. It was also the first full week since November with a running 28-day revenue per available room percent change in the double digits.”

Overall, the U.S. hotel industry’s occupancy increased 5.1% to 64.6% and its RevPAR finished the week up 9.0% to US$66.01.

Note: ADR: Average Daily Rate, RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

This graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate.

The 2011 occupancy rate (red) was fairly low in January and February, but appears to be improving recently - and is now closer to the rate in 2008 than in 2010.

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