The U.S. hotel industry recorded its highest monthly performance levels since before the beginning of the pandemic, according to May 2021 data from STR. In May, occupancy reached 59.3 percent, average daily rate was $117.69 and revenue per available room was $69.81. Each of the three key performance metrics were the highest for any month since February 2020.
While year-over-year percentage changes show significant increases because of comparison with a pandemic-affected period in 2020, the country’s performance levels remained well below the prepandemic comparable of May 2019: occupancy, down 13.5 percent; ADR, down 10.9 percent; and RevPAR, down 22.9 percent.
Top Markets
Among the top 25 markets, Miami experienced the highest occupancy level (74.2 percent), which was 2.6 percent below the market’s benchmark from 2019. The market also recorded the highest ADR ($236.07) and RevPAR ($175.23) levels. Miami’s ADR level was 33.6 percent higher than the prepandemic comparable.
Markets with the lowest occupancy for the month included Minneapolis (43.5 percent) and San Francisco/San Mateo (44 percent).
Overall, the top 25 markets showed lower occupancy but higher ADR than all other markets.