STR's View of How Hurricane Sandy Impacted New York City Hotels

According to data from STR, year-on-year occupancy for New York fell 7.3% as a result of Hurricane Sandy during the week of 28 October - 3 November 2012. The storm made landfall on Monday, 29 October.

The market's occupancy fell to 80.5% compared with the same time period in 2011. Its ADR ended the week down 0.7% to US$290.78, and its RevPAR room fell 7.9% to US$233.94.

"Arguably, the weak demand numbers for hotels in Sandy's path may have been lifted slightly by stranded travelers and an influx of displaced people, news crews and insurance adjusters," said Jan Freitag, senior VP of global development at STR. "It is worth noting that despite the evacuation of Lower Manhattan and the loss of power in the greater metro area of NYC, hotels in the area still sold an average 8 out of 10 rooms each night ... Part of Friday and Saturday's occupancy results also may have been influenced by New York City Marathon runners who were in town with little advance warning of the cancellation of their big race."

Overall, the U.S. hotel industry reported mostly negative results in the three key performance metrics. Occupancy fell 2.5%to 57.7%, ADR increased 1.2% to US$104.40 and RevPAR decreased 1.3% to US$60.22.

"In addition to Hurricane Sandy, Halloween also negatively affected the overall U.S. weekly performance, putting a damper on group travel across the U.S. Nationwide occupancies declined 18.4% on Wednesday night alone," Freitag said.

See also: Impact of Hurricane Sandy on Hotels in New York and Atlanta

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