Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) in the United States rose 10.2 pc year over year (YoY) for the week ending September 28, driven by a 7.5 pc increase in Average Daily Rate (ADR), which is the highest in over 80 weeks. These are some of the key findings of the global hospitality industry’s performance in the week ended September 28, says a report by hospitality industry tracker STR.

According to STR, New York City contributed 3.7 percentage points (ppts) to the national RevPAR growth rate due to the United Nations General Assembly meeting. Its contribution to national ADR was nearly the same amount. While historically a strong week for New York City, calendar shifts of both the UN as well as the Yom Kippur observance helped drive overall performance in the United States.

STR adds that even excluding New York City, US performance was strong with RevPAR increasing 6.5 pc on ADR which grew 4 pc and occupancy that rose 1.5ppts with benefit from the Yom Kippur shift.

It says that Monday-Wednesday were the primary beneficiary with RevPAR rising 9.4 pc followed by shoulder days, that Sunday and Thursday, up 5.6 pc, and the weekend of Friday-Saturday up 3.6 pc.

According to STR, all chain scales posted RevPAR gains ranging from luxury, that gained 25.3 pc to economy with the lowest increase at 1.8 pc. Most RevPAR increases were driven by ADR at twice the rate of occupancy, it adds.

STR says that there was a widespread uptick across various cities as more than a third or 63 of the 171 markets saw double-digit RevPAR growth during the week. Across the Top 25 Markets, 20 saw RevPAR growth led by New York City with a RevPAR increase of 70.1 pc on a 52.8 pc ADR increase.

This particular week is normally a strong one for the city. In the 10 years ending 2019, the “Big Apple” recorded its highest absolute RevPAR of the year seven times during this week and that 2024 will add to this list as RevPAR topped USD 488.

STR says that group demand for Luxury and Upscale hotels increased by 14.3 pc, reaching its second highest level or 2.4 million rooms since Fall 2019 with the highest level achieved last week. Group ADR increased 18.1 pc. Excluding New York City, Group demand growth stayed in double digits, of over 13.5 pc, while Group ADR slowed to a still healthy 5.5 pc. It says that 19 of the Top 25 Markets posted Group gains with all but three also posting ADR gains.

Significant growth in Germany impacted by trade fairs and Oktoberfest

Outside of the US, STR says that weekly global RevPAR, excluding the US, increased 9 pc, driven primarily by a 4.1ppt increase in occupancy, which reached 72.8 pc, a six-week high. ADR increased 2.9 pc. Strong growth was seen in most of the 10 largest countries, based on supply.

It says that Germany recorded a notable RevPAR gain of over 27.7 pc, driven by a 23.3 pc rise in ADR. Two events drove the increase: Oktoberfest and InnoTrans. In Munich, the start of Oktoberfest propelled ADR by 16.8 pc with occupancy rising 7.6 ppts. Additionally, the biennial InnoTrans event in Berlin drove ADR up by 77.2 pc while occupancy remained steady at 87.2 pc.

STR says that Australia saw performance wane with occupancy down 1.6ppts and ADR falling 5.9 pc. China saw a positive RevPAR comparison that grew 5.6 pc driven primarily by occupancy while ADR fell. Note, because of the Golden Week holiday that began October 1, some properties did not report results this week, which likely impacted overall country and global results. However, even when excluding China, global RevPAR was still up, 9.6 pc on strong ADR gains of over 7.7 pc with occupancy reaching its highest level of the year so far at 74.4 pc.