Although it was affected by the Rosh Hashanah holiday on September 23-24, the U.S. hotel industry reported negative year-over-year comparisons, according to data from CoStar Group running through 27 September.
STR reported that occupancy from September 21-27 was at 65.6 percent, down 4.2 percent from the comparable week in 2024. Average daily rate was also down 2.5 percent, to $166.48.
The largest declines in the country’s top 25 markets were Las Vegas (with occupancy down 23.0 percent to 66.1 percent and rate down 20.1 percent to $195.31) and New Orleans (with occupancy down 21.1 percent to 48.4 percent and rate down 14.9 percent to $131.54).
CoStar’s recent podcast indicated that August numbers were not good for the hotel industry, as the average daily rate’s growth fell below that of inflation.
“Yes, the [U.S. economy] is bumpy up and down the food chain, and you have tariff impacts and the tax cut impact and immigration and all those conversations, but bottom line is continued growth of the American economy," said Jan Freitag of CoStar Group. “And then we’re sitting here looking at our data and saying, ‘Growth? What growth?’ It seems like we’re a little bit disconnected from what the macro environment is, if we look at our little microcosm of hotels.”
CoStar said that average daily rate growth, year to date, is only 1.0 percent. And the outlook for the next few months isn’t promising, especially with potential hurricane impacts.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
