Preliminary data shows that U.S. hotels sold the most rooms on record for any first quarter since STR began tracking the industry in 1987. An increase of roughly 5.9 million rooms sold year over year helped drive an estimated 3.6% increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the first quarter of 2026, which will be the strongest quarterly increase since the fourth quarter of 2024.
While the quarter was solid, U.S. hotel momentum stalled in the week of March 29 to April 4 ahead of Easter. U.S. hotel room demand fell 4.6%, the largest of the year so far, driving down RevPAR 5.1%. Average daily rate (ADR) saw a slight decline of 0.1%, marking the first week since January that demand, ADR and RevPAR all declined simultaneously.
The week leading up to Easter Sunday, or Holy Week, has historically been a slow demand week for U.S. hotels, and the holiday’s yearly calendar fluctuation leads to large year-over-year declines. Last week’s 4.6% fall in demand was the smallest decline of the past four Holy Weeks, which averaged a 6.7% decrease in demand since 2023. Early-week demand growth on Sunday and Monday helped soften the week’s overall demand loss compared to previous years. Weekday room demand was down just 0.3% last week, compared to 2025 Holy Week when hotel demand decreased 4.2% through Thursday.
Group demand for luxury and upper-upscale hotels declined by 37% last week, representing a pullback in business travel for the religious week. The 727,000-decrease in group rooms sold was the largest weekly decline since Holy Week in 2025. The timing of Easter this year likely shifted business travel to March, helping the month see a greater than 3% increase in group demand.
Despite the drop in group demand, luxury hotels were the only class to see RevPAR growth last week. Every class declined in overall room demand for the week, but luxury hotels had an ADR growth of 9.7% that drove their 6.7% increase in RevPAR. Luxury performance continued to separate the class from the rest of the hotel industry, as luxury led all classes in RevPAR, ADR and demand growth in the first quarter.
At the market level, 72% of U.S. hotel markets saw RevPAR fall, but there were some themes among market performance this week. Large markets that rely on weekday business conventions and weekend leisure travel saw the biggest declines. Spring-break vacation markets on the other hand were among the strongest performers for the week.
Las Vegas saw its first week of RevPAR decline since February, falling 34.2% last week. Hotel performance decline on Holy Week is not unique to the market, as it cuts into both the weekday business travel and weekend leisure travel. Over the last four Holy Weeks, Las Vegas RevPAR has declined by an average of 24%. Nashville and New Orleans were other markets affected by the decline in weekend leisure travel. Weekend RevPAR declined 36% in Nashville and 41.6% in New Orleans, similar to weekend declines for Holy Week 2025. All but one of the top 25 markets declined in group demand for luxury and upper-upscale hotels, led by Washington D.C., which sold 55,000 less group rooms.
The week’s performance ultimately came down to calendar dynamics. While Holy Week pressured business and weekend leisure demand across most markets, spring break destinations played a key role in softening the impact. Over 30% of K–12 public school districts were on spring break last week—nearly double the share from the same week in 2025—driving RevPAR gains of 18.6% in Hawaii, 15.1% in Florida and 8% in Southern California. These offsets underscore that last week’s declines were driven more by timing than by a deterioration in demand fundamentals.
Global RevPAR falls on Easter calendar shift and Iran war
Global hotel RevPAR, on a same-store and constant USD basis, excluding the U.S., fell 7.1% during the week – down by its largest amount in recent memory. Global hotel RevPAR was weighed down by decreases across the globe and particularly in the Gulf Cooperative Council countries (-68.8%). Excluding the latter, global RevPAR was flat (+0.0%).
Holy Week across most of Europe was down with Germany and U.K. both seeing RevPAR decreases. On the flip side, France and Spain were up, particularly in the latter which saw a 24.2% gain. Comparing Holy Week 2026 to 2025 occupancy and ADR decreased across all four European subcontinents, though performance improved as Easter weekend approached.
While Mexico RevPAR fell again, there are signs that travelers are returning post-cartel violence as key tourist spots in Cancun and Mexican Caribbean, all reported gains in demand this week. Pacific Central, the principal market affected by the violence earlier this, year also appeared to be normalizing as the weekly demand decline was the smallest of the past six weeks.
For the first time since the end of 2025, Canadian RevPAR decreased (-5.7%) on slower demand in Montreal and Toronto ahead of Easter. While the RevPAR decrease was widespread across the country, several markets did see RevPAR growth including Alberta, Edmonton, and Quebec.
This week’s big winner was the Caribbean where RevPAR saw a large double-digit increase via travel for spring break. Japan and China were also up this week.
Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR. Cole Martin is an analytics and insights specialist at STR.