STR Reports US Hotel Performance in February 2014

According to data from STR, the U.S. hotel industry reported positive results in the three key performance metrics during February 2014.

Overall, the U.S. hotel industry’s occupancy was up 3.3% to 60.3%, ADR rose 3.9% to US$111.94, and RevPAR increased 7.3% to US$67.49.

“February results were healthy,” said Jan Freitag, senior VP of strategic development at STR. “RevPAR increased 7.3%, driven primarily by a 3.9-% increase in ADR. Last year in February ADR increased 4.5%. This year growth was lower, but nonetheless stronger than in January (+3.2%). Occupancy for the month was just over 60%, so hotels are reporting stronger occupancies again, and this goes hand in hand with some pricing power.”

“Demand grew at a healthy clip of 4.5%, well above last year’s 2.4% growth, and that easy comparable probably contributed to the strong increase,” Freitag added. “Year-to-date demand is up 3.9%, well above last year (+2.2%) and well above our expected 2014 demand growth number (+2.3%), so expect demand growth to slow as we hit summer.”

Among the Top 25 Markets, St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois, reported the only double-digit occupancy increase, rising 10.1% to 56.4%. Atlanta, Georgia, followed with a 9.3-% increase to 67.2%. New York, New York, fell 3.1% in occupancy to 73.9%, posting the largest decrease in that metric.

San Francisco/San Mateo, California (+14.2% to US$186.92), and Nashville, Tennessee (+11.6% to US$109.22), achieved the largest ADR increases for the month.

Three markets reported RevPAR increases of more than 15%: San Francisco/San Mateo (+19.7% to US$149.30); Nashville (+18.7% to US$72.91); and St. Louis (+16.9% to US$50.45).

New Orleans, Louisiana, reported the largest decrease in both ADR (-16.7% to US$159.73) and RevPAR (18.9% to US$110.60).