The events have it.
Event-driven travel, particularly from concerts and major entertainment, pushed U.S. hotel performance higher in the week ending May 2, driving a fourth consecutive week of revenue per available room growth. RevPAR increased 3.2% year over year, supported by gains in both average daily rate and occupancy, despite a strong comparison week in 2025 when RevPAR rose 4%.
Weekday hotel performance (Sunday through Thursday) appeared weak at first, with RevPAR increasing 2.1% year over year. However, this reflects a difficult comparison against a 7.5% gain during the same week in 2025. On a two-year basis, weekday RevPAR increased 9.7% compared to 2024 levels, indicating continued underlying strength despite muted year-over-year growth.
Group demand further supported weekday trends, particularly in luxury and upper-upscale hotels. While weekday group demand increased just 0.5% year over year, total group room nights sold reached the highest level of any week in 2026. The 1.7 million weekday group rooms sold represented a 14.9% increase over the same week in 2024 and marked the third consecutive week of peak group demand levels this year, reinforcing sustained strength in business-oriented travel.
Events ruled the weekends
Weekend performance benefited from a more favorable comparison and strong event-driven transient demand. RevPAR from Friday through Saturday increased 5.3%, driven primarily by a 4.4% rise in ADR. Weekend ADR reached $184, the second-highest level of the year, as large-scale events compressed hotel availability.
Las Vegas led event-driven performance during the week, with full-week RevPAR increasing 29%, including a 62.3% lift over the weekend. The market hosted three Phish shows at The Sphere and two Morgan Wallen concerts at Allegiant Stadium, driving weekend occupancy to 94.6% and ADR to $267. Total weekend room demand exceeded 303,000 rooms sold, the highest weekend level recorded in any U.S. market so far in 2026.
Concert-driven demand extended beyond top markets. The BTS World Tour, which began its North American leg last week, drove significant performance gains in Tampa, Florida, and El Paso, Texas. Tampa, which hosted two shows, recorded its largest weekly RevPAR increase of the year (+22.9%). El Paso, which hosted a Saturday show, posted an 87.7% increase in weekly RevPAR, including a 205% spike over the weekend. Demand from the tour also extended into surrounding areas, with the New Mexico South market recording a 39.5% weekend RevPAR increase.
Additional concert-driven demand was observed in smaller markets. A sold-out Luke Combs concert in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a record-breaking George Strait performance in Clemson, South Carolina, generated weekend hotel performance levels comparable to those typically seen during college football home game weekends.
In Miami, the Formula 1 Grand Prix continued to drive premium pricing. While occupancy remained relatively flat year over year at 93% due to the event occurring during the same week last year, RevPAR increased 17.4% as ADR rose 17.6%. Weekend ADR reached $445, one of the highest levels on record for the market.
While event-driven demand lifted performance across many markets, San Francisco provided a notable offset. The market recorded its first week of negative RevPAR growth in five weeks, with RevPAR declining 31.2% alongside a 28.2% drop in ADR. This decline was largely due to the timing shift of the RSA Conference, which was held during this week in 2025 but moved to March in 2026. During its 2026 occurrence, the event drove a 133.9% increase in weekly RevPAR in San Francisco.
The event-driven hotel performance last week primarily benefited luxury hotels, which recorded the largest increases in RevPAR, ADR and occupancy among all hotel classes. While each class, except for economy hotels, posted weekly gains, all segments outperformed their full-week trends over the weekend as increased transient demand compressed availability. Overall, performance gains reflected stable weekday demand supported by group travel alongside outsized weekend lifts driven by large-scale events.
With the strong finish, we estimate April RevPAR rose by 4.2% on an ADR gain of 2.6%. ADR has risen by more than 2% for the past three months, whereas demand has seen four months of growth. And, for the second time this year, monthly demand will reach a record high, as April’s demand of 110.4 million will surpass the previous record for April set in 2019 by nearly 200,000 room nights. April year-to-date demand will also be at a record high as the industry will have sold more than 3 million more room nights than in the record year, which was also 2019. We expect May to slow as group travel abates and business travelers stay closer to home as the school year comes to an end and summer travel ramps up.
Global demand decline weighs down RevPAR
Comparable hotels outside of the U.S. saw demand fall by 1.8% in the week ending May 2. Most of the decrease came from hotels in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where demand fell by nearly 30% this week. However, the GCC decline was the lowest since the start of the war with the U.A.E. accounting for the bulk of the demand retreat. Global RevPAR on a same-store and constant USD basis was down 3.7% including GCC and up 1% without.
China and Japan were also a drag to the industry as demand fell 5% and 3% respectively, resulting in a RevPAR decline of 9% in each country on a same-store basis. Mexico’s RevPAR was also down again this week, but unlike past weeks, the decrease was mostly due to falling ADR with demand rising slightly.
The rest of the world saw RevPAR advance, with strong growth in the Caribbean, where RevPAR increased 14.3% on an ADR gain of a similar amount. Canada, Germany, Italy and the U.K. all saw solid to strong growth this week.
Correction, May 8: This article has been updated to reflect that Miami had one of the highest revenue per available room levels for the week ending May 2, not the highest.
Cole Martin is Analytics and Insights Specialist at STR and Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR.