Miami hotels rally as overall U.S. market sags

The U.S. hotel industry continued to suffer last week despite gains in the luxury sector and in select sub-markets, including New York City and Miami, according to data from Smith Travel Research for March 28 through April 3. Hotels saw an overall occupancy drop of 3.6 percent to 54.1 percent during the week, and the average daily rate was down 4.4 percent to $94.45. Revenue per available room — known as RevPAR — dropped 7.9 percent to $51.05. Meanwhile, luxury hotels saw improvements across the board: occupancy rose 2.2 percent to 62.8 percent, the average daily rate reached $254.52, up 1.7 percent from the week before, and revenue per available room — known as RevPAR — was up 4 percent to $159.78. The New York City market posted the largest occupancy increase — 22.3 percent — of all the top 25 markets surveyed, reaching 87 percent. It also had the largest RevPAR increase, up 26.8 percent to $179.61. Miami-Hialeah and New York City were two of the three top markets to see rises in average daily rates, up 9 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. TRD