Hotel Sector to Recover Faster than Expected, According to Revised STR Forecast
Originally published on June 15, 2022, by Michael Tucker for the Mortgage Banker's Association.
STR and Tourism Economics upgraded their recovery timeline for U.S. hotel revenue per available room.
The data firms now forecast the revenue metric will surpass 2019 levels later this year. When the COVID pandemic struck in 2020, they had forecast RevPAR would not fully bounce back until 2024.
“Demand and occupancy have trended well in line with our recent forecasts, but pricing continues to exceed expectations due to the influence of inflation as well as the economic fundamentals supporting increased guest spending,” said STR President Amanda Hite.
Hite said the major factor that sped up the timeline was an $11 increase in the 2022 average daily room rates. STR and TE still expect annual hotel occupancy to come in under the pre-pandemic comparable, but forecast ADR and RevPAR will be $14 and $6 higher than in 2019, respectively.