U.S. hotel performance strengthened again in the week of July 19-25 as the final match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup helped lift national results while the return of displaced group demand broadened growth across several major markets.
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 6.3% year over year, supported by a 4.9% increase in average daily rate (ADR) and a 1-percentage-point lift in occupancy. At 72.5%, U.S. hotel occupancy reached its highest weekly level of the last two years, while RevPAR, ADR and occupancy each increased for the 15th consecutive week. The World Cup final on Sunday, July 19 in New York produced the week’s most visible hotel performance surge, but the broader takeaway was that hotel demand improved well beyond the tournament’s last active host market.
National RevPAR growth was strong throughout the week but peaked on Sunday with a 13.2% increase mainly due to the World Cup. Excluding New York City, overall Sunday RevPAR growth falls from 13.2% to 4.9%. While Sunday produced the most dramatic increase, New York’s performance was not limited to match night. RevPAR and ADR increased by double digits each weekday through Thursday, suggesting that World Cup-related demand supported hotel performance beyond match night. This helped New York City lead all markets last week with a 35% increase in RevPAR, a 28.2% increase in ADR and a 4.7 percentage-point improvement in occupancy.
World Cup-related demand became increasingly concentrated in luxury hotels during the tournament's final stages as the tournament progressed toward its most anticipated matches. That trend was reflected in U.S. hotel performance by chain scale, with luxury hotels the only class to record double-digit RevPAR growth in each of the past three weeks. However, performance gains were not limited to the upper end of the market, as every class recorded RevPAR growth for the seventh consecutive week.
While New York generated the week's largest hotel performance gains, World Cup markets without a match also posted strong performance. The 10 World Cup markets that did not host a match last week combined for an 8.1% RevPAR increase, supported by both ADR growth and a 2-percentage-point lift in occupancy. Luxury and upper-upscale group demand in those markets increased 21% after declining 10.7% during the tournament, suggesting that some business travel and conference activity shifted around the World Cup calendar rather than disappearing entirely.
Group demand overall was up 7.4% last week, which played a major role in the combined RevPAR increase of 8.4% across the Top 25 markets. Outside New York City, Chicago saw the largest RevPAR growth in any of these markets and the largest group demand increase of any market. Chicago hosted the 117th NAACP National Convention and the WNBA All-Star weekend which resulted in a 23.3% jump in RevPAR last week. The increase marked Chicago's tenth consecutive week of RevPAR growth, with gains exceeding 15% in six of those weeks. Alongside Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco all saw RevPAR growth above 15% last week, each supported by both ADR and occupancy increases.
Las Vegas was the clear negative outlier among the top 25 U.S. hotel markets, with RevPAR declining 20.4% as occupancy fell 12.4 percentage points. Las Vegas sold 142,000 fewer rooms than during the same week last year, creating the largest major-market drag on national demand. The decline came against a difficult comparison period that included a Beyoncé and Backstreet Boys concerts in the market during the same week in 2025. Despite those declines, national RevPAR was still up 5.8% excluding both Las Vegas and New York, indicating that growth extended well beyond the week's two largest outliers.
Performance outside the top 25 markets was also positive, with RevPAR increasing 4.9%, ADR rising 3% and occupancy improving 1.3 percentage points. Although results varied considerably by market, the segment's overall gains further demonstrate that last week's growth extended well beyond New York and the largest urban markets.
Global
Global hotel RevPAR rebounded to 2.2% on a comparable and constant USD basis excluding the U.S. As with the previous weeks, strong to solid growth was seen around the world with only the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries seeing a steep decline (-21.3%) due to the ongoing war in the Middle East. Leaders this week included Canada and India where RevPAR increased by double digits. Hotel performance growth was also strong in the Caribbean, Italy and the U.K. where RevPAR was in the high single digits.
While the GCC saw a steep decrease, they were not alone in the RevPAR deficit column. Mexico continued to see RevPAR retreat as it has for the entire year. This week’s decrease was like what was seen in the prior fortnight. Australia was down for a third consecutive week, as was Germany, and China posted its seventh straight weekly fall.
Excluding the GCC, Australia, China, Germany and Mexico, global RevPAR was up 6.2%, the most of the past seven weeks.
Cole Martin is Analytics and Insights Specialist at STR and Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR.