STR: U.S. hotel occupancy down 1.7 percent in the final week of February

U.S. HOTELS EXPERIENCED mixed results during the last week of February, according to STR, with drops in occupancy and RevPAR. The spreading coronavirus was largely to blame.

Occupancy decreased 1.7 percent to 64.1 percent from Feb. 23 to 29 while RevPAR went down 0.2 percent to $83.16. ADR increased 1.6 percent to $129.67.

The declines in occupancy and ADR were most pronounced on the last two days of the month. A major decline of 3.8 percent in occupancy was reported in the airport hotels category.

“We continue to monitor performance in proximity to U.S. airports for early indicators of a coronavirus impact,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior vice president of lodging insights. “The coming weeks will be important to monitor for more defined trends, especially with increased coverage around the outbreak and potential event schedule adjustments.”

Among the top 25 markets, San Francisco recorded the week’s largest increases in RevPAR and ADR, up 28.1 percent to $240.24 and up 28.6 percent to $305.10 respectively. Occupancy in the market was however down 0.4 percent to 78.7 percent.

Orlando experienced the highest rise in occupancy, up 6.7 percent to 86 percent and the second-largest jump in RevPAR, up 11.8 percent to $126.03.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, Wisconsin, reported the steepest decrease in occupancy, down 8.2 percent to 56.4 percent.

New Orleans saw the only double-digit ADR drop, down 12.7 percent to $174.59 while Chicago, Illinois registered the largest decline in RevPAR, down 12 percent to $61.71.

Before February, the industry started January with increases in all three key performance metrics.