After Labor Day weekend gave a much-needed bump to U.S. hotel occupancy, the metric declined the week after, according to the latest data from STR.
For the week of Sept. 6-12, occupancy reached 48.5 percent, down 1.6 percent from the previous week at 17.7 million roomnights sold. Still, this was an improvement over the week of Aug. 23-29, when occupancy dropped to 48.2 percent. Compared to the same week last year, occupancy was down 30.2 percent.
Average daily rate reached $98.99, down 25.5 percent year over year, while revenue per available room was $47.96, down 48.1 percent.
Top Markets
The highest occupancy markets were those housing displaced residents from Hurricane Laura and western wildfires, with Louisiana North (77.2 percent) and Louisiana South (76.8 percent) showing the highest levels in the metric. The Oregon Area (73.7 percent) and California North (73.3 percent) markets also were among the top 5 highest occupancy levels for the week.
Aggregate data for the top 25 markets showed lower occupancy (43.2 percent), but higher ADR ($101.10) than all other markets.
Three markets reached or surpassed 50 percent occupancy: Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Va. (58.8 percent); San Diego (57.5 percent); and Los Angeles/Long Beach (56.7 percent).
Markets with the lowest occupancy levels for the week included Oahu Island, Hawaii (21.1 percent) and Orlando (31.6 percent).