The U.S. hotel industry continued to distance itself from a down year in 2025 as hotel demand increased for the sixth consecutive week with a 3% gain in the week of March 8-14.
This six-week growth streak stands out coming off a year in 2025 where U.S. hotel demand never grew for a sustained period. What is also surprising is that demand has mimicked the growth rate seen in TSA screenings during this period after a prolonged break. On top of the demand lift, the week of March 8-14 saw a 5.6% increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR), a 3.2% increase in average daily rate (ADR) and an occupancy increase of 1.5 percentage points compared to last year.
We believe U.S. hotel demand fell last year as the impact of policy changes and government cuts weighed on travelers. This year, as these changes have been digested, weekly U.S. hotel demand returned to “normal” levels. But we still see added strength. As compared to 2024, weekly demand over the past six weeks is up 1.6%. More importantly, the absolute level is the second highest in history, just below the record set in 2023 (-0.1%). Thus, while the year-over-year growth is partially a function of easy comps, the growth we are seeing now seems to be powered by other factors. Only time will tell if it continues given the Iranian war, higher fuel costs, etc.
Back-to-back weeks of growth in March continued upon the upswing we saw in February. February 2026 finished with the highest room demand ever for a February and the best month of hotel performance in the U.S. in the past 12 months. RevPAR grew 4.3%, ADR increased 2% and occupancy was up 1.3 percent points year over year. March is on pace to surpass the growth seen in February.
Unlike last week, where Las Vegas accounted for most of the U.S. hotel industry’s growth, this week’s gains were more multifaceted. Nearly half of all U.S. hotel markets saw increases in all three key performance metrics of RevPAR, ADR and occupancy. Twenty of the top 25 U.S. hotel markets saw RevPAR advance this week, including nine with double-digit increases. Outside of economy hotels, every class of hotels increased in both RevPAR and rooms sold this week. Each day of the week was up in both metrics, peaking on the weekend with Friday and Saturday up 7.2% in RevPAR and 4% in room demand.
Many of the headwinds U.S. hotels have faced over the past year have diminished or have become tailwinds for the hospitality industry. The markets affected by the hurricanes in late 2024 have continued to have less of a negative impact on room demand over the last few weeks. Hurricane markets were down just 1% in demand this week, making this their smallest headwind since August 2025. Las Vegas, which declined in room demand for 13 consecutive months before February, saw growth for the second consecutive week this week. Group demand for luxury and upper-upscale hotels, which was down 1.8% in 2025, increased by 7.2% this week.
Looking back to a year ago, U.S. hotels were down 4.2% in RevPAR and 3% in room demand compared to 2024. When comparing 2026 to 2024, RevPAR this week was up 1.1%, but well below the rate of inflation, and overall room demand was slightly down 0.2%. Over 65% of weeks in 2025 were down in rooms sold compared to 2024, so there will be more growth opportunities against easier comparisons throughout the rest of the year. But the hotel demand gains appear stronger and not just a function of easier comps.
San Francisco continued to stand out as it was the leading market in RevPAR, ADR and occupancy growth this week. It hosted the Game Developers Conference, which was held later in March 2025, and drove RevPAR up 64.4% this week. Through the first two weeks of March, San Francisco is up over 15% in rooms sold, and well on its way to increase in demand for the 15th consecutive month.
Miami also saw a sizable increase of 28.9% in RevPAR this week, driven by a 17% increase in ADR and 8-percentage-point lift in occupancy. Miami was one of the hosts of the World Baseball Classic pool play tournament, and the sole host of the final stages of the knockout bracket from March 13-17.
Outside of the top 25 markets, Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City also saw event-driven growth. Austin hosted the annual SXSW, which drove up group demand for luxury and upper upscale hotels by 57% this week. Salt Lake City held the Geo-Congress Engineering Conference and the NCAA Skiing Championships, which combined to lift group demand by 69.5%.
Overall, group demand was up 7.2% in the U.S. this week. The 133,000 additional group rooms sold was the largest weekly increase of 2026 so far. Even if you ignore the down year in 2025, group demand was up 4.8% compared to week 11 in 2024.
Group demand drove the combined RevPAR of luxury and upper-upscale hotels, up 8% this week. They were followed by upscale and upper-midscale hotels, where RevPAR increased 4.5% with midscale and economy hotels up 0.8%. This was the fourth time in the last five weeks that all three hotel tiers saw weekly increases.
While hurricane markets are less of a performance drag, it still has an impact on lower-tier hotels. Excluding hurricane markets, midscale and economy hotels saw RevPAR advance 2.3% in the week on a 1.6% demand increase.
Global RevPAR still rising
Global hotel RevPAR – excluding the U.S. and on a comparable and constant USD basis – rose 3.1% on a 4% increase in ADR as occupancy fell 0.6 percentage points. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Mexico saw RevPAR retreat by double digits.
The war in Iran is weighing on RevPAR within the GCC with the measure falling 13.2% this week. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw the largest decrease with RevPAR falling 66.7% on a 43-percentage-point decline. Kuwait, Oman, and Oatar also saw double-digit decreases due to falling demand. However, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia reported RevPAR gains, with the measure rising by 57.1% in the latter country. Since the war began on Feb. 28, the GCC is down 6.4%.
Mexico hotels continued to see strong downward pressure as well driven by both falling occupancy and ADR. All the resort markets saw RevPAR decrease by more than 20% this week. The largest decline continued to be in the Pacific Central, the area affected by the recent cartel violence.
While all eyes are on the GCC and less so on Mexico, other parts of the world are doing well, including RevPAR in India rising by 33.1% followed by Spain (+9.5%), Japan (+9%) and the Caribbean (8.8%). China’s hotel RevPAR was also up this week (+7.1%) on rising ADR.
Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR. Cole Martin is an analytics and insights specialist at STR.