TravelClick’s April 2016 North American Hospitality Review (NAHR) reports that new reservation commitments have taken a hit in the last month, suffering a 7.1 percent drop. Despite the season’s fragmented performance, data also showed that 18 of the continent’s top 25 markets enjoyed overall year-over-year increases in committed occupancy growth.
“The decline is more prevalent within the business travel segment and is now impacting overall transient demand,” says John Hach, a TravelClick senior industry analyst. “On the positive side, committed occupancy is showing an increase of 2.5 percent over last year, and there is encouraging group reservation demand in the majority of North American markets.”
Transient bookings for the next 12 months indicate a 0.2 percent drop year-over-year, while ADR for this segment is up 2 percent. The transient leisure segment showed a 0.2 percent gain with an ADR increase of 2.3 percent. The transient business segment dropped 1.9 percent, but ADR rose by 2.1 percent. Group bookings jumped 3.7 percent since last year, with ADR up 3.6 percent.
“As we move through the second and third quarter of 2016, to successfully navigate through these new headwinds, it’s imperative that hoteliers vigilantly reexamine local market conditions by utilizing advance reservation business intelligence solutions,” says Hach. “Best practices encompass closely monitoring competitive rates and inclusions. Too often hoteliers focus only on monitoring competitive rates, but standard competitive inclusions must be carefully assessed with rate canvassing strategies to maximize local advantage, especially given current market conditions.”
Data from the April 2016 NAHR is gathered from the analysis of group sales commitments and individual reservations in the 25 major North American markets for hotel stays between April 2016 and March 2017.
