Hotel Occupancy Rate increases following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma

From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: Hurricane Irma’s initial impact on hotel markets

STR data shows Florida hotel markets that were evacuated before the arrival of Hurricane Irma experienced significant performance decreases, but the destinations evacuees flocked to saw significant growth.

From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: US hotel results for week ending 9 September

The U.S. hotel industry reported positive year-over-year results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 3-9 September 2017, according to data from STR.

In comparison with the week of 4-10 September 2016, the industry recorded the following:

• Occupancy: +2.1% to 64.0%
• Average daily rate (ADR): +1.6% to US$120.78
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +3.7% to US$77.31

Among the Top 25 Markets, Houston, Texas, reported the largest year-over-year increases in each of the three key performance metrics. Amid the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, occupancy rose 66.1% to 86.6%, ADR was up 23.9% to US$114.27 and RevPAR surged 105.9% to US$98.91. STR analysts note that hotels in the market filled up with displaced residents, FEMA workers and other demand related to recovery efforts.
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Ahead of Hurricane Irma landfall, Miami/Hialeah, Florida, saw the week’s largest drop in occupancy (-20.2% to 50.9%) and the largest decrease in RevPAR (-25.5% to US$65.55).
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The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.

The red line is for 2017, dash light blue is 2016, dashed orange is 2015 (best year on record), blue is the median, and black is for 2009 (the worst year since the Great Depression for hotels).

Currently the occupancy rate to date is ahead of last year, and just behind the record year in 2015.  The hurricanes might push the annual occupancy rate to a new record.

Seasonally, the occupancy rate will increase into the Fall business travel season.

Data Source: STR, Courtesy of HotelNewsNow.com