U.S. Hotel Performance Split: Luxury Hotels Rise as Low-End Brands Slump

Skift Take
Luxury hotels in the U.S. have recently experienced robust growth in demand and room rates, while economy hotels have declined year-over-year. The numbers for the first five months of the year suggest a break with broad historical patterns.
"We're seeing a bifurcation by hotel class," said Jan Freitag, national director, hospitality analytics, at CoStar Group. "The higher-end traveler and, therefore, the higher-end hotels are showing robust growth in demand and room rate. But the same cannot be said for the lower end of the market."
Here are the year-over-year trends for the first five months of the year, according to CoStar:
Luxury hotel occupancy was up 1.8% Economy hotel occupancy was down 3.4%This divergence breaks a long-standing pattern in the hotel