A good week for U.S. hotel industry

U.S. hotel performance improved last week, with occupancy, average daily rates and revenue per available room all up from their levels during the same period last year, according to the latest data from Smith Travel Research. Average daily rates rose 2.1 percent to $94.37 in the 13th-straight week of increases for this metric after more than a year-and-a-half of steady declines. The continued rise in daily rates, said Chad Church, director of special services at STR, is evidence that “the industry trusts the positive demand trends that emerged earlier in the year.” New York City saw the largest increase in average daily rates — a 13 percent uptick to $217.32 — and was followed by Orlando, Fla., which saw a 9.9 percent increase to $74.89. In more welcome news for the industry, occupancy rose in each of the top 25 hotel markets and by 7.5 percent nationwide to 57.4 percent. Revenue per available room, or revpar, also rose 9.7 percent overall, to $54.16. TRD