U.S. hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 1.7% the week of Aug. 23-29, marking the industry's 21st consecutive week of year-over-year growth.
While the streak remained intact, RevPAR growth slowed to its lowest level since early April as a Labor Day calendar shift created dramatically different hotel performance trends between weekdays and the weekend.
Last week's results were largely defined by timing. With Labor Day falling one week later in 2026, the industry benefited from a more favorable weekday comparison than a year ago by creating additional opportunities for meetings, conferences and business events, helping support weekday travel demand. As a result, Sunday through Thursday RevPAR rose 10.9%, supported by a 6.4% increase in demand. The demand gain was the largest weekday increase recorded this summer. The strongest gains came from business-oriented segments, with weekday group demand at luxury and upper-upscale hotels increasing 14.8% year over year, signaling a notable increase in convention and corporate travel activity.
The same calendar shift created the opposite effect over the weekend. With Labor Day weekend falling during the comparable week in 2025, weekend demand declined 8.5% as holiday leisure travel and event-driven demand shifted into the following reporting period. The split between weekday and weekend performance ultimately muted the industry's full-week results, limiting average daily rate (ADR) growth to 0.6% and occupancy growth to 0.7 percentage points despite strong gains earlier in the week.
Calendar effects on major markets
The same weekday-weekend reversal played out across many of the nation's largest hotel markets. Fourteen of the top 25 markets recorded double-digit weekday RevPAR gains, benefiting from the favorable pre-holiday business travel environment. However, those gains were largely erased over the weekend, when 15 markets posted double-digit RevPAR declines against last year's Labor Day weekend comparison. Combined RevPAR across the top 25 markets increased just 0.6% for the week.
San Francisco stood out as the clear performance leader, with RevPAR increasing 59.9% for the week. The market benefited from multiple business conferences during the week, while weekend demand remained elevated thanks to the Pokémon World Championships and related fan events.
At the other end of the spectrum, New York City hotels recorded a 16.1% decline in RevPAR. The market lost the U.S. Open-related demand that occurred during the comparable week last year after the tournament shifted one week later in 2026. New York also contended with a difficult comparison against the Labor Day weekend leisure demand that benefited the market a year ago. Similar pressures were evident in other leisure-oriented destinations, including Orlando and Las Vegas, which together sold over 100,000 fewer hotel room nights than during the comparable weekend in 2025.
Broad weekday growth gives way to weekend declines
Outside the top 25 U.S. hotel markets, performance followed a nearly identical pattern. Despite 90% of markets posting weekday RevPAR growth, the combined full-week RevPAR increased just 2.4% as more than half of these markets experienced double-digit declines over the weekend. Many of the sharpest declines occurred in leisure destinations and college football markets, where the shift in the Labor Day calendar removed many of the demand drivers that boosted performance last year.
The Labor Day shift pushed the Division I football schedule back by one week compared with 2025. Just eight Division I games were played last weekend, compared with 88 during the same weekend a year ago. The difference was particularly significant considering four of those games in 2025 were hosted in stadiums with capacities exceeding 100,000 seats, removing a major source of weekend demand from several college football markets.
Every chain scale follows the same pattern
All U.S. hotel classes recorded weekday RevPAR growth before reversing course with double-digit weekend declines. Luxury and upper-upscale hotels benefited most from the weekday business travel boost, combining for a 13.4% increase in weekday RevPAR. Conversely, economy hotels experienced the greatest pressure from the difficult Labor Day comparison, posting the largest weekend declines in RevPAR, ADR, and demand among all chain scales.
Takeaway
Last week's results serve as a reminder of the outsized influence calendar shifts can have on U.S. hotel performance. While the Labor Day comparison created a significant drag on weekend results, weekday demand trends remained notably strong, particularly among business- and group-oriented segments. With holiday-related travel shifting into the following reporting period, the U.S. hotel industry's performance picture could look considerably different in next week's results.
Worldwide RevPAR up strongly
Global hotel RevPAR on a comparable and constant USD excluding the U.S. soared 7.3%, its largest gain since early mid-February. The increase was driven by strong double-digit growth in Germany, France, India and the U.K. Additionally, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries saw the lowest RevPAR declines since the start of the war with Iran (-0.3%). Growth in the GCC countries was particularly strong at the end of the week. The growth was driven by calendar and event shifts across the globe.
While most of the world saw RevPAR advance this past week, Mexico continued to see downward pressure with RevPAR falling 14.5% on a 10% ADR decrease. Mexican Caribbean hotels saw the largest ADR fall (-26.9%) whereas the ADR declines moderated in Cancun (-3.7%).
Cole Martin is Analytics and Insights Specialist at STR and Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR.