After averaging gains of 4.6% in revenue per available room in the prior three weeks, U.S. hotels lost momentum and finished February with a thud as RevPAR declined 0.2% in the week of Feb. 22-28.
However, U.S. hotel demand continued to advance for a fourth consecutive week. With the strong results of the previous weeks, we expect February RevPAR (+4.3%) to be the largest gain in more than a year.
This week’s lackluster hotel performance results were due to a variety of market impacts. Half of U.S. hotel markets saw increases in demand and RevPAR, while the other half declined in both categories. The bookends of hotel classes, luxury and economy hotels, declined in rooms sold and all other classes saw growth this week.
RevPAR in the top 25 U.S. hotel markets were down 3.4%, driven by a handful of markets, including Denver, Las Vegas and New Orleans offset by large gains in Houston and San Francisco. Excluding outliers with RevPAR change of ±20% or more, RevPAR in the remaining 20 markets was marginally up (+0.6%). RevPAR in non-top 25 markets increased 2.7%.
After three consecutive weeks of growth, Las Vegas – the largest hotel market in the country – was the largest headwind for the U.S. hotel industry this week. Las Vegas saw hotel room demand decline by more than 110,000 rooms sold, leading to a 35.7% RevPAR decrease. Weekday RevPAR from Sunday to Thursday was down 43.8% with an average daily rate down 32.4% and a 13.9-percentage-point decline in occupancy. This week’s decline was due to a lull in conferences/events, which are expected to return in the first week of March. Removing Las Vegas, U.S. hotel RevPAR was up 1.9% for the week.
New Orleans also felt the impact of calendar shifts, declining 33.7% this week due to a difficult comparison to Mardi Gras 2025. Last week, Mardi Gras 2026, was only the second week of positive RevPAR for New Orleans in 2026. Denver also fell due to conference shifts along with a weak ski season.
Another negative factor this week was New York City’s 13.4% RevPAR decline and 74,700-room-demand decrease brought about by a nor’easter storm that delivered the city’s first blizzard since March 2017. This was New York’s first RevPAR decline of the year and the largest weekly decline since 2024. Boston was also affected by the storm, leading to the market’s sixth consecutive week of RevPAR declines.
While falling group detracted from Las Vegas, the top 25 U.S. hotel markets with the most growth were driven by group demand. San Francisco, Orlando, Houston and Chicago all saw solid group demand gains among luxury and upper-upscale hotels.
San Francisco continued to rise as weekly RevPAR grew 35.3%, which is its 18th week of growth of the past 20. Even if you exclude the Super Bowl week, San Francisco has grown RevPAR by more than 21% on average over this period.
Houston was another top market this week as RevPAR advanced 20.7%. This was the third consecutive week of positive RevPAR growth, which is a significant shift for a market that was down nearly double digits in 2025. This week’s gain was due in part to the kickoff of the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR). The HLSR officially began March 2, but kickoff events drove Houston weekend RevPAR up 49.7% and hotel occupancy over 86%.
Outside the top 25 markets, AI data center markets saw some of the largest growth. These markets included Texas North, Louisiana North and Nevada Area, which have combined for double-digit growth in both RevPAR and demand in each week of 2026. Hurricane markets were down only 3.3% in RevPAR and 2.3% in demand for the week. We expect that the hurricane markets will be less of a drag on U.S. performance in the weeks to come.
For the first time since March, luxury hotels declined slightly in both RevPAR (-0.8%) and rooms sold (-1%) this week. Economy hotels were the only other class to decline in both metrics this week. All other classes saw lifts in demand, led by upper-midscale hotels with 127,000 more rooms sold this week than a year ago. Excluding Las Vegas, all classes saw RevPAR advance except economy.
With Easter earlier this year, we expect to see a more concentrated spring break season than last year, with most K-12 schools out between March 21 and April 11. This contrasts with last year, when a late Easter created an elongated spring break. The highest percentage of K-12 schools on spring break will occur in the weeks ending April 4 and April 11.
Global hotel RevPAR slows
After a fortnight of 10%+ RevPAR growth, global hotel RevPAR – on a same-store and constant USD basis – rose 2.2%, weighed down by China, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Mexico. Overall, global hotel occupancy was down 3 percentage points with ADR also slowing to 6.8% from 13.9% a week ago.
China continued to feel the shift of the Spring Festival (Feb. 15-23). Resort markets continued to see strong ADR-fueled RevPAR growth, but key markets including Beijing, Shanghai and others were down post-holiday.
GCC performance was soft at the beginning of the week due to Ramadan, which is typically the slowest period of the year in the region. RevPAR Sunday through Tuesday fell by more than 23% with more moderate decreases Wednesday and Thursday. Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar saw RevPAR fall by more than 60% Sunday through Thursday whereas Saudi Arabia was up 40% over the same days.
The measure then grew Friday before jumping 31% on Saturday as U.S./Israeli strikes began in Iran. The Saturday increase was driven primarily by occupancy as airspace closures led to elevated displacement hotel demand.
We expect elevated hotel demand to persist into the data for March 1-7 before tapering off as the broader impacts of the war weigh on regional travel patterns.
Mexico’s weekly demand fell by more than 12% following the cartel violence on Sunday, Feb. 22. Three markets – Mexico Central/Bajio, Mexico Northeast, and Pacific Central – saw demand decline by more than 30% with most other falling by 7% on average. Cancun and Yucatan/Campeche bucked the trend as demand rose by nearly 2%, but ADR was down in both markets. As a result, all markets in Mexico saw RevPAR decline during the week with the country down 19.9% overall with declines ranging from -1.3% in Yucatan/Campeche to -44.7% in Pacific Central, which includes Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, the epicenter of the violence.
The slowing of global hotel RevPAR was mitigated by double-digit growth in Australia, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, and in the Caribbean. We expect more downward pressure in the weeks ahead due to Middle East crisis.
Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR. Cole Martin is an analytics and insights specialist at STR.