Trends

Supported by lower interest rates, transaction activity held up during a year of uncertainty. This article addresses recent trends in hotel sales and capitalization rates, the course of hotel values since the last downturn, and the outlook for 2020.

For full-year 2019, the Caribbean hotel industry reported a 5.6% increase in average daily rate to $218.82, which overcame a 2.7% dip in occupancy to 63.7% to lift revenue per available room 2.8% to $139.45.

At the close of 2019, analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE) report that the total U.S. construction pipeline continues to grow with 5,748 projects/708,898 rooms, up 4% by projects and 6% by rooms year-over-year (YOY).

For full-year 2019, Mexico’s hotel industry reported negative performance, with a 2.6% decline in both occupancy and average daily rate resulting in a 5.1% decrease in revenue per available room compared to 2018.

In the most recent Lodging Econometrics (LE) Construction Pipeline Trend report on Los Angeles, LE states that Los Angeles has a total of 168 projects/28,501 rooms in the construction pipeline, the largest pipeline of any market in the U.S.

Canada hotel occupancy declined 1.3% to 65.2% in 2019, and ADR increased 1.2% to result in nearly flat RevPAR (-0.2%).

Over the years, my partner, Marty Orlick, Chair of JMBM's ADA Compliance and Defense Group, has written about service animals used by persons with disabilities, and what hospitality staff needs to know about how to accommodate them. For example, what should the hostess of your restaurant do when a miniature horse enters your establishment with its disabled owner? What kind of animals qualify as service animals, anyway? And what is the owner's responsibility?

Europe hotel occupancy rose 0.4% to 72.2% in 2019, and a 1.8% ADR increase to €113.36 ($125.60) drove RevPAR up 2.2% to €81.90 ($90.74).

Hotels in the Asia/Pacific region reported occupancy dipped 1.3% to 69.3% in 2019 while ADR dropped 2% to $98.73 and RevPAR fell 3.2% to $68.38.

Hotels in Central and South America saw hotel occupancy increase 1.2% to 58.8% in 2019 as ADR rose 8% to $96.25 and RevPAR increased 9.3% to $56.55.