Report: Luxury, Economy Chain Scale Demand Outperforms Total U.S.

ROCKVILLE, MD—Kalibri Labs’ “U.S. Hotel Industry Performance Overview” reveals luxury and economy chain-scale hotels reported the best growth in occupancy for the month of September 2019, both up over 5% year-over-year. Other chain-scale segments reported flat or declining occupancy performance for the month, resulting in the total U.S. occupancy growing a nominal 1%.

The month of September also uncovered interesting results for two prominent markets. Hotels in both New York and San Francisco reported declining Guest Paid ADR, when compared to the same period last year. This is especially surprising given these markets had the highest occupancy of the top 10 markets (92% for NYC; 87% for San Francisco). September findings also revealed that bookings in New York and San Francisco also experienced the longest booking lead time (five weeks for both cities), which historically has been an indicator of pricing power.

Upon evaluation of Channel/Source of Business performance on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, the voice channel is now more than 7% of all room night bookings. This minimal amount of room night bookings through call centers is a continuation of its decline over the past several years.