Hotels in Caribbean Report ADR and RevPAR Growth

According to STR Analytics’ Caribbean Host Almanac, the performance of hotels in the Caribbean continues to illustrate positive trends in occupancy and ADR, though at a much slower pace than hotels in the United States.

While the region has achieved three years (2010-2013) of moderate-to-strong RevPAR growth, it still has ground to make up from two years of double-digit RevPAR declines in 2008 and 2009.

However, 2014 could be the breakthrough year for the region, as year-to-date September 2014 has exhibited strong ADR growth (+7.9%), driving RevPAR increases (+9.6%).

“The Caribbean hotel market has been slow to recover from decreased demand levels in 2008-2010,” said Joseph Rael, senior project manager at STR Analytics. “However, 2014 has been a strong year for the market and we expect ADR and RevPAR to easily surpass those of the prior peaks in 2007. The strong growth in revenues this year should also translate into even stronger increases in net operating income, similar to last year when an 11.3% revenue increase translated into a 26.7% increase in NOI.”

RevPAR growth in 2013 helped increase the Caribbean’s profitability. On a same-store, per-available-room basis, total revenue growth outpaced the increases of departmental and operating expenses, leading to a gross-operating-profit (GOP) increase of 23.4%. Departmental and undistributed operating expenses saw increases of 7.5% and 8.0%, respectively.

Other highlights of the 2014 Caribbean Host Almanac include:

- 81.0% of Caribbean hotels that reported data experienced an increase in rooms revenue.

- Turks and Caicos was the RevPAR leader in the region during 2013 with a RevPAR of US$457, followed by Antigua/Barbuda with a RevPAR of US$441.

- Turks and Caicos, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago experienced the largest RevPAR increases in 2013 with 53%, 36% and 24%, respectively.

- F&B revenue increased 14.3% on a same-store basis for 2013.

- The Luxury class reported a GOP of 22.3%, while the Upper Upscale class reported a GOP of 26.5%.