March continued strong as U.S. hotel room demand increased for a seventh consecutive week and at the highest level since mid-February.
During the week of March 15-21, demand rose 3.3% year over year, driving a third straight week of growth across all three key performance metrics. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 4.9%, supported by a 2.2% gain in average daily rate (ADR) and a 1.8-percentage‑point increase in occupancy.
Weekly U.S. hotel occupancy reached 67.7%, extending a nine‑week streak of week‑over‑week improvement. Notably, occupancy levels did not reach this point until mid‑June in 2025 and late May in 2024, underscoring how early‑year demand is tracking ahead of recent norms and reinforcing the U.S. hotel industry’s momentum entering the heart of the spring-break travel.
Over the past seven weeks, the U.S. hotel industry has sold 4.1 million more rooms than it did in the same period a year ago, despite a decline in group demand for luxury and upper-upscale hotels. Weekday group demand from Sunday to Thursday for these hotels was down 1.8% this week. However, stronger transient demand more than offset the decline in group travel. Over 70% U.S. markets were up in overall demand this week and total weekday demand increased by 2.1%.
Over the past seven weeks, 66% of U.S. hotel markets on average have seen demand gains versus 50% a year ago during the same seven-week period. Twelve markets, led by Las Vegas, accounted for 49% of the demand increase over the past seven weeks. Besides Las Vegas, other high-performing markets included Nashville, San Diego and San Francisco. The latter two markets combined contributed more than 12% of the demand gains over the past seven weeks. In total, 35 markets have reported demand gains in each of the seven weeks versus 15 a year ago. Additionally, 33 markets have seen increased hotel demand in at least 11 of the past 12 weeks versus just 12 last year.
Each class of hotels increased in both RevPAR and rooms sold this week for just the second time this year. Even with the decline in group demand, luxury hotels continued to have the largest RevPAR growth (+7.7%), driven by the largest ADR increase of any class (+5.6%). Unlike recent weeks, economy and midscale hotels saw growth on par with the rest of the hotel industry. Room demand in economy hotels increased 1.6% or 76,000 additional rooms sold, making this the largest weekly demand increase since 2024. Prior to this week, economy hotels had averaged a weekly decline of 130,000 rooms sold a week since January 2025. Midscale hotels also saw their highest demand increase since 2014, increasing by over 145,000 rooms sold this week.
Many of the top individual market increases were driven by sporting events. The opening rounds of the NCAA March Madness tournament began on Thursday, March 19, and ran through Sunday in eight markets across the country. These markets combined for an occupancy of 83.6% for Friday and Saturday, and a weekend RevPAR increase of 17.9%. St. Louis and San Diego saw the largest increases of Top 25 host markets, both of which saw a weekly RevPAR increase of 29%. San Diego’s demand growth (+18.1%) was largest of the two markets, due to conferences in the days leading up to the tournament. Of the smaller March Madness host markets, Buffalo, New York, and Oklahoma City saw the largest year‑over‑year increases.
Outside of basketball, Miami led all markets with a 90% occupancy thanks to the World Baseball Classic’s final rounds from Sunday to Tuesday. The tournament final between the United States and Venezuela, helped drive Tuesday occupancy above 92%. For the week, Miami RevPAR was up 17.3% and ADR increased by 12.5%.
Denver rounded out the week with the strongest RevPAR growth among Top 25 markets despite not hosting a major sporting event. The APS Global Physics Summit drove a 37% increase in group demand, highlighting how conference activity continues to provide meaningful weekday lift in select markets. With demand growth broadening across hotel classes and event‑driven travel accelerating mid‑March performance, the U.S. hotel industry enters the final weeks of the month with solid momentum and improving depth across both leisure and business‑oriented segments.
Global hotels feel impact of Iran war
Global RevPAR growth, on a same-store and constant USD basis excluding the U.S., stalled (+0.5%) as the weight of the Iranian war resulted in a 30.1% decrease in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Excluding the GCC, global RevPAR was up 3.5%, like what had been seen in the previous three weeks. Mexico (12.8%) and India (11.9%) also saw RevPAR fall in the week.
Pacific Central, the location of the cartel violence a few weeks ago, and Mexican Caribbean markets of Mexico saw the largest decrease – 37.2% and 19.6%, respectively – but even without those markets, RevPAR in Mexico was still down (-3.4%) as nearly all markets saw a decline. The only notable exception was Cancun, where occupancy advanced to 81.4% with flat ADR, resulting in a 2.4% RevPAR gain.
More than half of all markets in India saw RevPAR decrease, mostly on falling occupancy. RevPAR in Bengaluru and Mumbai, the two largest markets, was down 27% and 12.6%, respectively.
Canada, Caribbean, Japan, and Spain saw RevPAR advance by more than 10%. France and the U.K. also saw solid growth with RevPAR flat in Australia and China. The former was held back by Brisbane and Melbourne, which both saw a double-digit fall.
Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR. Cole Martin is an analytics and insights specialist at STR.