Preliminary December numbers from Smith Travel Research show a continued downward slide in U.S. hotel performance. Occupancy is down between 1 percent and 3 percent, while revenue per available room is down between 7 percent and 9 percent.
Among the chain scales, luxury, upper-upscale and upscale are at least showing some signs of traction, with occupancy bumps of between from 5 percent to down only 1 percent. RevPAR is a different story, however, with every chain scale reporting declines of 14 percent to 6 percent.
December performance wasn’t all bad, however. The U.S. hotel industry reported increases in both occupancy and revenue per available room in year-over-year measurements for the week ending 2 January 2010, writes HotelNewsNow.com’s Rachael Spann. This is the first week in which two of the three key performance metrics were positive since the week ending 22 December 2008.
The industry’s occupancy increased 5.9 percent to end the week at 45.5 percent. Average daily rate dropped 4.0 percent to finish the week at US$99.79. RevPAR for the week rose 1.6 percent to finish at US$45.37.
Read “US hotels’ occupancy, RevPAR end positive in STR weekly numbers.”
Hotel lending remains scarce in the U.S., especially for low-priced, high-leverage debt with no recourse attached, reports HotelNewsNow.com’s Shawn A. Turner. Blame the lingering effects of the economic downturn, which has thwarted corporate travel, hindered industry fundamentals, and, perhaps most importantly, put tremendous strain on the nation’s financial institutions.
Is there hope for a lending turnaround in 2010? At least not in the early part, though some thawing might occur later in the year, particularly if interest rates go up.
Read “Hotel lending remains scarce.”
Lending might be down, but some analysts are pointing toward increased transactions in 2010, signalled by the recent Interstate Hotels & Resorts deal.
Last month, the Arlington, Virginia-based hotel management company was acquired for US$307 million by a joint venture between Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Company and an equity fund sponsored by Thayer Lodging Group—a move that could indicate that the environment for transactions involving privately held money and publicly traded companies is beginning to heat up.
Read “Analysts applaud Interstate deal.”
Seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment were up 1,000 from the previous week to 434,000 for the week ending 2 January 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The four-week moving average, however, was down more than 10,000 from the previous weeks’ revised average of 460,500.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6 percent for the week ending 26 December 2009, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate of 3.8 percent.
Compiled by Patrick Mayock.
