STR Reports October Gains for U.S. Hotel Industry

The U.S. hotel industry posted increases in all three key performance measurements during October 2010, according to data from STR. In year-over-year measurements, the industry’s occupancy was up 6.9 percent to 61.3 percent, average daily rate ended the month with a 1.2 percent increase to $100.89, and revenue per available room for the month rose 8.2 percent to $61.89.

“Overall, industry fundamentals continued to improve across the board in October,” said Mark Lomanno, president of STR. “While room rate growth remained sluggish in October, we attribute that to lower-rated group business that was booked months before there was a significant demand turnaround. We’re hopeful that we will see steady, but probably slow, room rate growth for the remainder of the year.”

Among the Top 25 Markets, Detroit led the occupancy increases, rising 16.3 percent to 58.9 percent, followed by New Orleans (up 14.8 percent to 72.7 percent), and Dallas (up 13.2 percent to 61.6 percent). None of the top markets reported occupancy decreases for the month.

Two markets experienced ADR increases of more than 5 percent -- New York City (up 6.9 percent to $272.57), and Boston (up 6 percent to $165.83). Philadelphia/New Jersey, fell 7.3 percent to $111.62, reporting the largest ADR decrease, followed by Nashville, Tenn., with a 5.1 percent decrease to $88.33.

Atlanta (up 17.7 percent to $55.12), and New Orleans (up 17.6 percent to $91.96), reported the largest RevPAR increases. Philadelphia experienced the largest RevPAR decrease, falling 6.5 percent to $78.53, followed by San Diego, with a 1.7 percent decrease to $82.11.

Among the Chain Scale segments, the Upscale segment (up 7.5 percent to 70.5 percent), the Midscale without Food and Beverage segment (up 7.5 percent to 62.4 percent), and the Economy segment (up 7.5 percent to 53.9 percent), reported the largest occupancy increases. The Luxury segment experienced the largest increase in both ADR (up 3.8 percent to $258.49) and RevPAR (up 10.2 percent to $186.34) for the month.