Group business is driving industry performance. For the 10th consecutive week, group demand (among Luxury and Upper Upscale hotels) increased, rising 7.4% YoY. Group demand was just one percent below 2019.
In this global update, STR focuses on performance, pipeline, and factors that influenced the data in 2023, while also looking ahead to what’s in store for the rest of 2024.
Growth in revenue per available rooms (RevPAR) returned to the U.S. following the previous week's decrease. Occupancy held somewhat steady, average daily rate (ADR) increased, weekday (Monday-Wednesday) performance grew, and group demand exploded, surpassing both the 2023 and 2019 comparables. Looking at select top countries elsewhere in the world, strong performance continued with eight of 10 countries seeing positive occupancy gains and six of 10 seeing ADR increases.
As Spring travel gears up, falling demand and softening ADR in the U.S. is concerning, however, hotel performance is expected to grow in the weeks ahead. Global performance continued to be strong and is expected to remain on a positive trajectory over the coming months, helped by Americans who continue to travel abroad.
Global urban market performance is strengthening, propelled by a surge in international travel and the return of business and group demand. Markets like London, New York and Tokyo are expected to lead global RevPAR performance in 2024 as travelers continue to return to cities.
Growth was balanced with 64% of markets showing increased occupancy and 70% achieving a higher average daily rate (ADR) than last year.
The 10 highest hotel supply countries outside of the U.S. saw occupancy that was largely in line with the comparable week last year. Seven of the 10 countries saw an occupancy change between -2ppts and +2ppts.
Outside of the U.S., YoY performance for the top 10 countries was largely swayed this week by a Chinese New Year calendar shift. The annual holiday occurred two weeks earlier last year. Only two other countries, Canada and Germany, saw declines - albeit small ones at -1.3ppts and 1.4ppts, respectively.
For the second straight week, the U.K. saw the highest occupancy (68.4%) across the top 10 countries outside of the U.S., posting an increase of 1.8ppts YoY as well as seeing an exact occupancy match to the day-to-day comparable year of 2018.
STR Weekly Global Hotel Industry Performance Insights: 21-27 January 2024