U.S. hotel fundamentals climbed for the seventh week in a row as the country comes out of the depths of the coronavirus pandemic.
National occupancy for the last week of May was 36.6 percent, up from 35.4 percent the week prior, according to the latest figures from hotel data firm STR. Occupancy rates were below 30 percent for all of April.
Revenue per available room, a measure of income and a key metric for performance, was up to $30.34.
While metrics in most markets are well below what they were a year ago, some submarkets — including Corpus Christie, Texas and two near Cape Canaveral, Florida — showed year-over-year improvements.
Six of the top 25 markets nationwide saw occupancy levels above 40 percent: Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg, Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit and New York City.
New York City saw occupancy rise to 47.6 percent from 44.9 percent the week prior. That’s just one percentage point lower than the second week of March, the last week before coronavirus sent occupancy plummeting below 20 percent. RevPAR also rose to $59.41 from $54.47 the week prior.
Los Angeles just missed the list with occupancy rising to 39.5 percent from 37.8 percent the week prior. RevPAR climbed about $2.40 to $42.43.
Occupancy in Miami rose to 32.8 percent from 29.3 percent the week earlier, marking the first time occupancy pushed above 30 percent since mid-March. RevPAR climbed nearly four dollars in to $27.49.
Chicago continues to be one of the worst performing large markets. Overall occupancy rose about a percentage point week-over-week to 29.1 percent, while RevPAR climbed about a dollar to $21.26.
Occupancy in Chicago’s central business district has hovered below 17 percent for three weeks and last week fell 0.2 percentage points to 16.7 percent. RevPAR rose about 30 cents to $16.97.
It could be worse. Hawaii’s Oahu Island again had the lowest occupancy levels in the nation last week, with just 12.5 percent of rooms occupied, nearly half the occupancy rate of the next worst-performing city, Boston.