U.S. hotels had more guests over Memorial Day weekend than at any other point during the pandemic, with 40% of all hotels reporting 90% occupancy or more, and those guests paid more for rooms than they did over the holiday weekend in 2019.

The latest Market Recovery Monitor data from STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm, shows that U.S. hotel revenue per available room for Memorial Day weekend was 104% of what it was over the holiday weekend in 2019. RevPAR for Memorial Day weekend was $114 this year, compared to $110 in 2019.

Average daily rate over Memorial Day weekend was 10.2% higher than the previous weekend, and higher than it was over the holiday weekend in 2019. For the full week, ADR was at its highest level since the start of the pandemic, up 5.4% from the previous week — the largest week-to-week increase of the past 10 weeks. In the U.S. top 25 markets, the ADR increase was even better, up 4% week-over-week — the largest weekly gain since early April.

However, for the full week ending May 29, RevPAR was still only 77% of what it was during the holiday week in 2019. That indicates that weekday business for hotels remains weak, as business travel and group bookings continue to lag.

Weekly RevPAR across the U.S. hotel industry was still the highest it's been since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at $75.

The Market Recovery Monitor, which places U.S. hotel markets in one of four categories based on the RevPAR index to 2019, shows 60% of all markets in “recovery” (RevPAR between 80% and 100% of 2019 levels) or “peak” (RevPAR above 2019 levels).

Three Florida markets — the Florida Keys, Sarasota and Daytona Beach — had the highest RevPAR index to 2019 for the week. San Francisco, New York and Boston had the lowest index to 2019.

U.S. hotel occupancy for the week reached 61.8%, the highest since February 2020. Accounting for temporarily closed hotel rooms, total room inventory occupancy was 59.2%.

During the first two days of the Memorial Day weekend, occupancy topped 78.3%, the highest weekend occupancy since October 2019. The weekend accounted for nearly all of the week-over-week increase in occupancy as weekday occupancy was flat versus the previous week. The largest week-over-week jump in occupancy was on Saturday, when occupancy across the U.S. hotel industry was 83%.

Occupancy was 60% or higher in half of all U.S. markets for the week. Only 17 markets reported weekly occupancy under 50%, versus 47 markets (one-third of all U.S. markets) in that range the previous week. Hotels in six of the top 25 markets posted occupancy below 50% for the week, including San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C.

Across the industry, there were 1,500 hotels with occupancy below 30% for the week, but that is the lowest number since the start of the pandemic.

At the market level, 77% of all U.S. markets had occupancy above 70% over the holiday weekend, and 30% of markets had occupancy above 80%. Only one market, New York, had occupancy below 50%.

Hotels with 300 or more rooms, which have struggled due to the lack of business and group travel, continued to gain ground with weekly occupancy of 48%. Over the holiday weekend, these hotels hit 70% occupancy. Granted, there are still a good number of large hotels that remain closed, which is likely bolstering occupancy for those that are open.

Isaac Collazo is VP Analytics at STR.

This article represents an interpretation of data collected by CoStar's hospitality analytics firm, STR. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concerns. For more analysis of STR data, visit the data insights blog on STR.com.