As expected, U.S. hotel performance during the week of June 29 to July 5 had some highs and lows due to the July Fourth holiday.
Based on historical trends and forward-looking data, a Friday Fourth of July – compared to the holiday falling on Thursday last year – gave U.S. business travelers extra time to squeeze in trips early in the week. That created strong year-over-year gains across the top-line metrics from Sunday through Tuesday, with revenue per available room up 6.6% on both occupancy growth (+2.6 percentage points) and average daily rate growth (+1.8%).
The rest of the week was a mixed bag with RevPAR on Wednesday (-5.8%) and Thursday (-15%) dropping the most. Friday was up slightly, while RevPAR on Saturday decreased 2.7%.
Overall for the week, U.S. hotel RevPAR declined 1.3% on a 0.9% ADR decrease and a 0.2-percentage-point drop in occupancy.
Record-high July Fourth room demand
U.S. hotel room demand for the 2025 July Fourth holiday week was comparable to the previous two years. For the Fourth of July itself, room demand was the highest ever. Supply was also the highest ever, which resulted in occupancy being the fifth highest over the past 26 years.
Las Vegas performance pulled down national results again
Market results varied considerably. Las Vegas reported another down week with RevPAR retreating 28.7%, due to falling ADR (-14.3%) and occupancy (-13.4 percentage points). Because of the size of Las Vegas – 3% of U.S. hotel room supply – a significant change in the market’s performance affects national averages.
The past year has been challenging for Las Vegas due to softening economic conditions and the drop in international arrivals. International inbound travel to Las Vegas has declined every month this year, except January, according to U.S. international air travel statistics (APIS I-92 Data). June showed the largest decline with international arrivals down 13.2%.
Excluding Las Vegas, U.S. RevPAR was flat (-0.1%) with ADR down slightly and occupancy up slightly.
Flat performance across large, medium and small markets
Hotel performance was generally flat across the U.S. In the top 25 markets – excluding Las Vegas – RevPAR was down 0.2%. There was also little RevPAR movement in non-top 25 metro markets (+0.4%) and non-metro/rural markets (-0.2%).
There were standouts in each market type, however. St. Louis (+38.4%) topped the top 25 in RevPAR growth due to healthy gains all week, including during the 62nd General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. St. Louis has posted RevPAR gains for the past 11 weeks.
Dallas, San Diego and Washington also posted double-digit RevPAR growth this week with all gains occurring at the start of the week.
Birmingham, Alabama, and Milwaukee posted the top results in non-T25 metro areas. Birmingham hosted the 2025 World Police and Fire Games, an international biennial event. Milwaukee hosted the 2025 USA Fencing Summer Nationals & July Challenge, the world’s largest fencing tournament.
In the non-metro/rural markets, Louisiana North – which includes Shreveport – earned top honors. Both Shreveport and the surrounding northern Louisiana area recorded gains all week.
Chain-scale results also flat with varied impacts from occupancy and ADR
Luxury chain hotels posted their first weekly RevPAR decline in 16 weeks, albeit a modest 0.4% dip. The next three chain scales posted modest increases, all occupancy-driven. At the low end, RevPAR decreased with midscale’s decline due to falling ADR while the decrease in economy hotels was a combination of both occupancy and ADR.
All chain scales, except economy hotels, started the week positive with the greatest gains in the top four chain scales. All chain scales retreated at the end of the week.
Group demand was not flat
While the week of Independence Day is generally a slow week for groups, the segment saw double-digit gains in room demand (+11.5%) among luxury and upper-upscale hotels. Sunday through Wednesday drove the gains (+31.1%). Thursday through Saturday saw group demand fall 8.3%.
Transient demand dropped 2.5% with Sunday through Wednesday down just 0.7% and Thursday through Saturday down 4.2%.
Global hotel performance highlights: Rock and roll lifted the UK
Among the countries with the largest hotel supply, Japan’s 23.8% RevPAR growth led the way in the most recent week.
In the United Kingdom, hotel RevPAR increased 8%, which was the first time U.K. grew RevPAR since early May. The majority (80%) of the 41 markets in the country posted positive RevPAR percentage changes. Cardiff, Wales, hosted Oasis’ reunion tour for two nights, which contributed to a 94.9% increase in weekly RevPAR. Birmingham, England, hosted Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s last-ever show, driving a 58% increase in weekly RevPAR.
Only three of the 11 countries with the highest hotel supply – China, Germany, and France – saw RevPAR decline for the week. Germany was down due a difficult comparison to last year’s Euro 2024 soccer tournament. The RevPAR decreases in France and China decreases were broad-based with nearly all markets in both countries seeing RevPAR decreases. Hong Kong and Paris were the exceptions with both seeing strong growth.
Looking ahead
U.S. hotel room demand is somewhat stagnant, and we expect summer to be topsy-turvy. TSA passenger screenings were up 1.2% over the past week. International travel to the U.S. for June was down 6.6%, while Americans leaving the country slowed (+0.2%) compared to May when that figure increased 1.7%.
The value of the U.S. dollar today compared to last July has declined more than 10%, which could encourage Americans to stay home while attracting international visitors.
That is all to say there are a lot of factors playing in the travel landscape which could help or hinder the summer season. As seen last week, concerts can have a significant impact on market performance. Live Nation Entertainment company chief, Michael Rapino, recently declared that 2025 would be a “monster stadium year.”
With summer not yet to the midway point, and the strong performance due to concerts already experienced, it’s reasonable to expect stadium concerts to continue to lift hotel performance in select markets around the globe.
The impact of events will still be there, but they will be more isolated.
Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR. Chris Klauda is director of market insights 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.