U.S. Hotel Sector Continues Performance Gains in Early August

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According to the latest market data from Smith Travel Research (STR), the U.S. hotel industry reported increases in all three key performance measurements during the week ending August 7, 2010.

In year-over-year measurements, the industry's occupancy increased 6.7 percent to 70.2 percent. Average daily rate rose 1.6 percent to US$99.13. Revenue per available room increased 8.4 percent to US$69.57.

"Several significant increases in group occupancy helped performance this week," said Steve Hood, senior VP at STR. "Oahu Island, Hawaii; Houston, Texas; Anaheim-Santa Ana, California; Seattle Washington; and San Diego, California, were among the markets to report big bumps in group occupancy for the week due to an increase in convention/conference activity last week. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues throughout the month of August."

All Top 25 Markets reported occupancy and RevPAR increases for the week.

Detroit, Michigan, achieved the largest occupancy increase, rising 26.1 percent to 69.1 percent. Three other top markets posted occupancy increases of more than 15 percent: Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Virginia (+17.0 percent to 87.5 percent); Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida (+15.6 percent to 62.4 percent); and Chicago, Illinois (+15.5 percent to 78.9 percent). San Francisco/San Mateo, California (+0.3 percent to 91.1 percent), and Orlando, Florida (+0.2 percent to 68.4 percent) ended the week virtually flat in occupancy.

New York, New York, experienced the only double-digit ADR increase, rising 12.4 percent to US$215.63, followed by Boston, Massachusetts (+6.6 percent to US$137.34), and San Francisco/San Mateo (+6.5 percent to US$143.51). Nashville, Tennessee, reported the largest ADR decrease, falling 5.3 percent to US$80.45.

Detroit increased 22.8 percent in RevPAR to US$52.08, reporting the largest increase in that metric, followed by Chicago (+20.3 percent to US$91.13) a

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