U.S. hotel room demand was the highest on record for a first
quarter, according to STR.
Minneapolis-St. Paul's first-quarter revenue per available
room (RevPAR) surged 24% from a year earlier, as Minneapolis' hosting of Super
Bowl LII in early February drove room rates up 19% to about $129 a night.
Miami-Hialeah's RevPAR jumped 17%, primarily on higher room
rates, while Philadelphia's RevPAR rose 14% as occupancy advanced more than 5
percentage points to almost 65%.
Such gains more than offset the 11% RevPAR decline in
Washington, D.C., where year-earlier figures were bolstered by President Donald
Trump's inauguration festivities and the Women's March.
Detroit's RevPAR fell 3.2%, while San Francisco-San Mateo's
RevPAR was down 2.3% as San Francisco finishes work on its convention center.
Overall, U.S. RevPAR rose 3.5%. The average daily rate
advanced 2.5% to $127, while occupancy edged up 0.6 percentage points to 61.6%.
Both occupancy and average daily rate were at all-time first-quarter highs.