Highlights
- New Orleans Super Bowl week ADR topped Vegas, but market dynamics provide important context
- U.S. RevPAR grew when removing Super Bowl comps
- Wildfire impact beginning to wane around Los Angeles
- Highest global occupancy thus far in 2025
- China, with the New Year holiday, boosted global demand
- U.K. performance down due to an event calendar shift
RevPAR growth? Depends on your lens.
In the week ending 8 February 2025, U.S. hotel industry revenue per available room (RevPAR) decreased if you factor Super Bowl comparisons.
— Source: STR
In 2024, the Super Bowl was in Las Vegas, the nation’s largest hotel market. During the comparable week, average daily rate (ADR) topped $406 and made up 10% of room revenue across the U.S.
This year’s Super Bowl host, New Orleans, is the nation’s 33rd largest STR-defined market. NOLA’s Super Bowl week ADR ($486) was higher than Las Vegas, but its contribution to total U.S. room revenue was only 3%.
That difference is why U.S. weekly RevPAR was down 2.7% for the week as occupancy dropped 0.5 percentage points (ppts) and ADR decreased 2.2%. Removing both Las Vegas and New Orleans, the rest of the country showed moderate RevPAR growth (+2.2%).
Note: For the rest of this analysis, we’ll exclude Las Vegas and New Orleans unless otherwise noted. That will provide a clearer view of changes in the remainder of the country.
— Source: STR
Top 25 and Hurricane markets leading RevPAR growth
U.S. occupancy was flat to last year (55.5%) and down slightly from the week prior (55.8%). ADR lost momentum, rising 2.1% year over year versus more than 3% gains in the previous two weeks. The slowdown in ADR growth was centered on weekdays (Monday-Wednesday), when the measure was half of what it was a week earlier (+2.6% vs. +5%). Weekday occupancy gains were also more tempered. Even with the lower increase, weekday RevPAR growth was the highest of the week (+2.9%), followed by shoulder days (Sunday & Thursday) at +2.6%. Weekend (Friday & Saturday) RevPAR came in at +0.8%.
The slower growth was seen in both the Top 25 Markets as well as all others. In the Top 25, Tampa saw the largest RevPAR change (+21.1%) with Washington, D.C. (+12.1%) a distant second followed by Orlando (+8.9%). Los Angeles and Seattle also saw strong RevPAR growth (7%+).
On the flip side, six markets saw RevPAR decline, including Denver (-13.5%) and Nashville (-13.1%). Other Top 25 markets seeing a reverse in RevPAR included Atlanta, Oahu, Phoenix and St. Louis.
New York City also had an off week as RevPAR advanced by only 1.3% due to a weekend decrease (-7.2%). New York’s weekday RevPAR was up 6.4%.
In the non-Top 25 Markets, RevPAR growth was led by many of the 13 markets impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. North Carolina West posted the nation’s largest RevPAR gain (+54.6%) followed by Augusta (+40.7%). Collectively, the 13 markets saw RevPAR rise 15.9%, which was nearly identical to the previous week’s growth. Occupancy gains (+5.9ppts) continued to drive the increases in most of these markets.
Tucson, not included in that group of 13 hurricane markets, recorded the third highest RevPAR gain in the country (+34.9%) Overall, RevPAR in the non-Top 25 Markets was up 1.7% as compared to +2.8% for the Top 25 Markets. Excluding the hurricane markets, non-Top 25 RevPAR was nearly flat (+0.7%) because falling occupancy
Los Angeles occupancy elevated but slowing
In the greater Los Angeles area (STR-defined markets: Los Angeles, Inland Empire, California Central Coast, and Orange County), RevPAR increased 5.2% all on occupancy gains. Collectively and over the past five weeks, RevPAR in the area has increased 6.6% on occupancy as ADR is up only 0.8%.
Since massive wildfires began in the region, four submarkets have seen large increases in occupancy: Pasadena/Glendale/Burbank (+20.9ppts), Los Angeles East (+15.5ppts), Los Angeles North (+11.6ppts) and Oxnard/Ventura (+9.1).
In the most recent week, these four submarkets saw occupancy advance collectively by 11.6ppts, which was less than the previous four weeks where the measure was up by more than 14ppts.
Hollywood/Beverly Hills continued to see occupancy fall (-4.9ppts), but that was the smallest decline since the week ending 11 January.
Not much movement in group
Among luxury and upper upscale hotels, group occupancy was up slightly (+0.5ppts) with mostly flat ADR (+0.6%). Weekend group showed the largest occupancy gain (+1.1ppts) but with falling ADR (-1.3%).
New Orleans scores big, Las Vegas percentage changes obviously retreat
Bringing the 2024 and 2025 Super Bowls back into the equation, RevPAR in Las Vegas dropped 62.5% on a 54.9% decrease in ADR. New Orleans’ RevPAR was up 135% on a 107% ADR increase.
Absolute ADR in NOLA reached US$486, which was ahead of what Las Vegas recorded last year ($406). Keep in mind, however, that Las Vegas hotel supply is 4.6 times larger than New Orleans and more importantly, there are 10 times more Luxury class rooms in Las Vegas. Thus, when it comes to ADR, we believe New Orleans saw compression that was not as prevalent in Las Vegas given market size. In addition, Las Vegas, given its casinos, is more like to comp rooms for high rollers, which is less likely in New Orleans.
NOLA’S Friday/Saturday RevPAR was up 156% on 142% ADR gain. Absolute ADR topped US$807 with occupancy at 92.9%. In the New Orleans CBD/French Quarter submarket, ADR was just shy of US$1,000 with occupancy of 97.4%. More than 10% of reporting hotels in the submarket had ADR above US$1000 over the weekend with nearly half above US$500. Results for Super Bowl Sunday will be reported next week.
China pushes global demand upwards
Global demand, excluding the U.S., jumped 10% and pushed occupancy to 62.1%, which was the highest level of the year so far. ADR increased 2.4% with RevPAR up 11.1%.
The large jump in demand was a result of China, where the measure increased 38% and accounted for most of the rooms growth globally. The driver was Chinese New Year, which began 29 January and concluded 12 February.
— Source: STR
Other countries seeing demand growth included Germany, Vietnam, Brazil, and France. Nearly two-thirds of the countries tracked on weekly basis, saw demand growth.
Among the top 10 largest countries, based on supply, demand was up 14.1% because of China. Excluding China, demand was up 1.1% despite strong growth in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The reason for the lower demand growth in the group was a steep decrease in Indonesia
(-8.7%) as well as declines in the Canda, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. The U.K. decrease was due to a shift in a major gaming conference.
RevPAR percentage changes in the top 10 countries ranged from +25.2% in China to -10.5% in the United Kingdom. Seven of the 10 countries saw double-digit growth this week.
Holiday spots saw mixed results with both Australia/Oceania and the Caribbean reporting flat to down RevPAR. The Middle East was also down due to decreases in Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates was up 4.4%.
— Source: STR
Another choppy week expected
Next week’s U.S. results will again be choppy due to the inclusion of Super Bowl Sunday and the shift from Las Vegas to New Orleans. Additionally, New Orleans will have difficult comps due to last year’s Mardi Gras when Fat Tuesday fell on 13 February 2024. Given those factors, the week will likely be flat to down again.
The rest of the world will also see difficult comps given that Chinese New Year was a week later last year. The negative impact will last through the week ending 22 February.
*Analysis by Isaac Collazo.
*All financial figures in constant U.S. dollar.
About CoStar Group, Inc.
CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, and analytics in the property markets. Founded in 1987, CoStar Group conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of real estate information. CoStar is the global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, and news, enabling clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on property values, market conditions and availabilities. Apartments.com is the leading online marketplace for renters seeking great apartment homes, providing property managers and owners a proven platform for marketing their properties. LoopNet is the most heavily trafficked online commercial real estate marketplace with thirteen million average monthly global unique visitors. STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics, and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Ten-X offers a leading platform for conducting commercial real estate online auctions and negotiated bids. Homes.com is the fastest growing online residential marketplace that connects agents, buyers, and sellers. OnTheMarket is a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom. BureauxLocaux is one of the largest specialized property portals for buying and leasing commercial real estate in France. Business Immo is France’s leading commercial real estate news service. Thomas Daily is Germany’s largest online data pool in the real estate industry. Belbex is the premier source of commercial space available to let and for sale in Spain. CoStar Group’s websites attracted over 163 million average monthly unique visitors in the third quarter of 2024. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar Group maintains offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Asia. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website, CoStarGroup.com, as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com.
This news release includes “forward-looking statements” including, without limitation, statements regarding CoStar’s expectations or beliefs regarding the future. These statements are based upon current beliefs and are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the risk that future media events will not sustain an increase in future occupancy rates. More information about potential factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in CoStar’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and Forms 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2024, June 30, 2024, and September 30, 2023, each of which is filed with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” section of those filings, as well as CoStar’s other filings with the SEC available at the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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