There is some positive news coming out of the last week of 2009—finally! Today Smith Travel Research released data indicating positive year-over-year growth in two of the three major metrics for the U.S. hotel industry for the week ending 2 January 2010.

Annual New Year’s Eve festivities helped immensely, and the calendar worked in favor of increased occupancy and extended trips compared to last year, according to Chad Church, manager of industry research for STR.

Because New Year’s Eve fell on a Thursday, that probably meant more people had Friday off of work and took the weekend for extended hotel stays. Unfortunately, rate was still sluggish for the holiday, but maybe we can’t expect miracles. Let’s celebrate the good news.

U.S. hotel performance-New Year’s Eve

I also mentioned that the weekly numbers showed some positive signs. For the week ending 2 January 2010, occupancy and RevPAR increased in year-over-year comparisons. The last time RevPAR saw positive change was the week ending 20 December 2008.

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.

For the full weekly performance article, read “STR: US hotel weekly results end year on positive note.”

Bigger picture
STR also released preliminary December numbers today, which indicate a slowdown in occupancy and RevPAR decreases. For the total U.S., occupancy percent change was 1 percent to 3 percent and RevPAR percent change was 7 percent to 9 percent. Actual total U.S. occupancy decrease in November was -4.3 percent; RevPAR was down 12.3 percent.

While this isn’t exactly a turnaround for the U.S. hotel industry, it may indicate some overall economic factors, such as employment, are working in favor of improved consumer confidence, Church said.

Jobs data released this week show slowdowns in unemployment. Employment is considered by many experts to be one of the strongest lead indicators of recovery for the hotel industry.

If you keep up with that kind of thing, you also would know that HIL, STR and e-forecasting.com’s lead indicator for the hotel industry, increased in November for the eighth consecutive month, the most recent data available.

Six of the nine components that make up the Hotel Industry's Leading indicator had a positive contribution in November: labor market tightness, weekly hours in hotels, international visitors future demand, interest rate spread, new orders for manufactured goods and national vacation barometer. Three of the nine components had a negative or zero contribution to the HIL in November: hotel profitability, oil prices and housing activity. 

Now that everyone is sufficiently pumped about the health of the hotel industry, perhaps hoteliers could resolve to drive rate in 2010!