North American hotels will experience a healthy first quarter, according to TravelClick’s December 2016 North American Hospitality Review (NAHR). All travel segments will see rate and occupancy gains year-over-year, with occupancy increasing 5 percent and ADR increasing 3.2 percent in the new year’s first quarter alone.
The last quarter of 2016 showed slow but positive growth across the board with group and transient leisure segments experiencing strong RevPAR increases at 2.8 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.
“The last two quarters of 2016 have been challenging for North American hoteliers as we have seen inconsistent reservation pace and sporadic business demand,” says John Hach, TravelClick’s senior industry analyst. “However, over the last two months, we are seeing a material improvement on both transient and group bookings that indicate that North America hospitality will be off to a much brighter start in 2017.”
For the next 12 months (December 2016 – November 2017), transient bookings are up 4 percent year-over-year, and ADR for this segment is up 2.7 percent. The transient leisure (discount, qualified and wholesale) segment is showing occupancy gains of 2.8 percent with ADR gains of 3 percent. The transient business (negotiated and retail) segment is up 4.1 percent, and ADR is up 2 percent. Group bookings are up 2.8 percent in committed roomnights over the same time last year, and ADR is up 2.4 percent.
The December NAHR examines group sales commitments and individual reservations in North America’s 25 major markets for hotels booked by December 1, 2016, through December 2016 and November 2017.
