HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—As we turn to a new decade, STR highlights the top 10 year-over-year growing markets for the past year. Even among us who keep judicious tabs on U.S. markets performance, there are a number of surprises as well as a few underdog appearances in STR’s yearly wrap-up. (STR is parent company of Hotel News Now.)
STR examined the annual percentage growth gains among 91 domestic metropolitan markets (2019 compared to 2018) on all of the key hotel industry metrics: supply, demand, revenue, occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room. Of note, the locations considered for our top 10 lists have excluded 73 “non-urbanized” STR markets covering broad geographic regions such as whole states (ex: Nebraska) or broad regions (ex: Georgia North). A total of 29 distinct markets appear on the end-of-year 2019 top 10 roundup.
- Austin makes the most appearances on the lists of changing markets, placing on five of the six major hotel KPIs. Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dayton/Springfield, Ohio; and McAllen/Brownsville, Texas, each appear as top 10 performers on four indicators.
- Across the broad spectrum of U.S. markets, STR’s top 25 markets have a smaller-than-expected footprint. For example, none of the top 25 U.S. markets appear among on our list of leading occupancy gainers.
- Among two of the more closely watched industry metrics—total rooms revenue and RevPAR—McAllen/Brownsville, Texas, showed a stellar 2019 comeback from 2018, and vastly outpaced second place finishers in those categories. McAllen/Brownsville also immensely outpaced other top performers in year-over-year percentage gains in both room demand and occupancy.
Source: STR, © 2020 CoStar Realty Information, Inc.
Download a PDF of the charts here.
M. Brian Riley is a research analyst with STR’s Market Insights division.
This article represents an interpretation of data collected by STR, parent company of HNN. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.