The U.S. hotel industry reported mixed results in the three key performance metrics during September 2018, according to data from STR. 
In a year-over-year comparison with September 2017, the industry posted the following:
- Occupancy: -2.1% to 68.0%
- Average daily rate (ADR): +1.9% to US$131.00
- Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -0.3% to US$89.10
The slight dip in RevPAR broke the industry’s 102-month streak of year-over-year growth in the metric. That run, which began in March 2010, was the longest on record.
“Very important to state, this is not the beginning of a downturn,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights. “The industry smashed the monthly demand record last September because of the rush of post-hurricane business in Houston and parts of Florida. That created a level of demand that the industry fell just short (-0.1%) of matching this September. In fact, that slight dip in demand was the first year-over-year decline in the metric since August 2015.
“When you look past the monthly year-over-year comparison, you will see that each of the key metrics were well above the long-term average for September and just barely ahead of the 2018 year-to-date average. The industry remains on solid footing even as RevPAR growth slows. We’ll release our final forecast revision of the year in the coming weeks with continued growth projected through 2019.”
Among the Top 25 Markets, San Francisco/San Mateo, California, registered the largest increase in RevPAR (+13.3% to US$239.64), due to the only double-digit lift in ADR (+13.6% to US$274.69).
Miami/Hialeah, Florida, experienced the highest rise in occupancy (+8.7% to 64.2%).
Phoenix, Arizona, posted the second-largest increases in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (+5.1% to 63.7%), ADR (+6.6% to US$110.37) and RevPAR (+12.1% to US$70.26).
Overall, 13 of the Top 25 Markets reported RevPAR growth.
Houston, Texas, reported the largest decreases in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (-30.8% to 59.1%), ADR (-7.7% to US$105.75) and RevPAR (-36.2% to US$62.48). Houston’s hotel performance was lifted in the weeks and months that followed Hurricane Harvey in 2017 as properties filled with displaced residents, relief workers, insurance adjustors, media members, etc.
Orlando, Florida, saw the only other double-digit declines in occupancy (-11.6% to 67.2%) and RevPAR (-12.5% to US$73.95).
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