by Calculated Risk on 5/18/2012 08:49:00 AM

From HotelNewsNow.com: St. Louis posts top occupancy, RevPAR gains

Overall, the U.S. hotel industry’s occupancy ended the week virtually flat with a 0.1% increase to 62.7%, ADR increased 4.5% to $105.85 and RevPAR jumped 4.5% to $66.35.

Hotel occupancy and RevPAR have improved from 2011, and occupancy is back close to normal. However ADR is still 3% to 4% below the precession levels, and the same for RevPAR.

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.

Looking forward, leisure travel usually increases over the summer months, and occupancy rates will rise. So far it looks like 2012 will have higher occupancy than 2011, but still mostly below the pre-rececession median. Hotels have come a long way since 2008 when I was writing about The Coming Hotel Bust. But it will be sometime before investment increases again.

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