Oct. 19–Houston's hotel market showed the biggest year-over-year drop among large U.S. cities in three metrics in September as activity levels retreated from last year's highs after Hurricane Harvey, a new report showed.
Occupancy fell 30.8 percent to 59.1 percent, average daily room rates dropped 7.7 percent to $105.75 and revenue per available room dropped 36.2 percent to $62.48 in September, according to a monthly report by research firm STR.
Orlando was the only other city to post a double-digit decline in occupancy. Orlando's occupancy there dropped 11.6 percent to 67.2 percent, STR said, while revenue per available room fell 12.5 percent to $73.95.
Nationally, average hotel occupancy dipped 2.1 percent to 68.0 percent, average daily rate rose 1.9 percent to $131, and revenue per available room was down 0.3 percent to $89.10. All of the metrics were well above the long-term average for September.
"The industry smashed the monthly demand record last September because of the rush of post-hurricane business in Houston and parts of Florida," STR's senior VP of lodging insights Jan Freitag said in a report. "That created a level of demand that the industry fell just short (-0.1%) of matching this September. In fact, that slight dip in demand was the first year-over-year decline in the metric since August 2015."
Overall, 13 of the top 25 markets showed growth in revenue per available room.
San Francisco saw the biggest jump, with revenue per available room rising 13.3 percent to $239.64. Average daily rates rose 13.6 percent to $274.69.
Miami posted the highest rise in occupancy, gaining 8.7 percent to 64.2 percent.
