That strong demand, coupled with a continued lack of new hotel openings, results in a projected occupancy increase of 2.6 percent to 63.8 percent in 2014.
HENDERSONVILLE, TENNESSEE – Demand for U.S. hotels is expected to increase 3.6 percent in 2014, according to STR and Tourism Economics’ revised forecast, which was presented at the Hotel Data Conference.
“The positive growth the hotel industry has seen thus far in 2014 is an encouraging sign,” said Amanda Hite, president and COO of STR. “With this in mind we made positive revisions to our outlook for both 2014 and 2015. We anticipate hotels to continue to see growth in all three key performance metrics, despite an uptick in pipeline activity. We predict hoteliers will see positive results over the next 24 to 36 months.”
The revised forecast incorporates the unexpected 4.5-percent demand growth during the second quarter, which will lift the full-year demand outlook for 2014.
That strong demand, coupled with a continued lack of new hotel openings, results in a projected occupancy increase of 2.6 percent to 63.8 percent in 2014.
“It is a great sign for the industry that group bookings have returned and are now complementing the already very strong transient room demand,” said Jan Freitag, senior VP of strategic development at STR. “We expect pricing power to remain firmly in operators’ hands.”
Average daily rate is expected to increase 4.2 percent to US$115.02 in 2014, while revenue per available room is projected to grow by 6.9 percent to US$73.37.
“Strong RevPAR growth of just under 7 percent is a little unexpected during this part of the cycle, but points to a very robust demand growth from business and leisure travelers alike,” Freitag said
In 2015, STR and Tourism Economics predict occupancy to rise 0.7 percent to 64.2 percent, ADR to increase 4.4 percent to US$120.13 and RevPAR to grow 5.2 percent to US$77.17. Demand is expected to increase 2.1 percent, and supply is predicted to increase 1.3 percent in 2015.
STR, STR Global announce F&B benchmarking
STR and STR Global are delighted to bring detailed food and beverage benchmarking to the hotel industry through their new report, F&B STAR. This report complements the existing STAR report, which focuses on rooms revenue performance.
“We are excited to launch F&B STAR and enter into a new realm of hotel benchmarking,” said Amanda Hite. “F&B is an important part of a hotel’s business and should be tracked closely. These reports will give revenue managers the ability to track their F&B performance against competitors and the local market, and provide another resource to ensure they are ‘in the know.’”
The F&B STAR is a vital revenue management tool that provides a detailed look at a property’s key performance indicators, including revenue per available square foot/meter, revenue per available seat and revenue per occupied room, against a chosen competitive set as well as the local market.
The reports will provide hotels with actionable, monthly benchmarking data on food, beverage, catering and banquets, F&B venues, and in-room dining revenue centers.
“In the past few years, there has been an increased interest in total revenue management, in addition to rooms revenue,” said Elizabeth Winkle, managing director of STR Global. “This growing interest has allowed us to launch F&B benchmarking in the form of the new F&B STAR Report. Comparative F&B analysis will assist in making data-driven decisions and taking a more strategic approach to increasing total revenue per available room (TrevPAR), and allow hotels to monitor, measure and take action to increase revenues in F&B.”
Photo caption: Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
