Have U.S. hotels turned the corner? U.S. hotel room demand has increased in 20 of the past 21 days, something that has not happened since January 2023. In the week of Feb. 15-21, room demand grew 3.8%, the largest weekly increase since New Year’s week.
As a result, U.S. hotel revenue per available room surged by 6.2% with a healthy 3% gain in average daily rate. Demand, ADR and RevPAR have all increased for the past three consecutive weeks, something U.S. hoteliers have not seen since 2024.
For the month, U.S. hotel RevPAR is up 5.5% on nearly equal gains in occupancy and ADR. Even if demand falls in the remaining seven days and ADR only grows 0.7% — the average of the past three months – February RevPAR will be up 4%, which will be the strongest monthly gain since January 2025.
Valentine’s Day/Presidents Day weekend and the days that followed saw robust demand growth of more than 4% through Thursday. Friday and Saturday demand was also up, but not as much (+2.8%). Weekly occupancy reached 62.2%, which is the highest occupancy of 2026 so far. Excluding the holiday weekend, Tuesday through Thursday occupancy was also good, rising 2.2 percentage points to 62.5%. While demand saw less growth over the weekend, its occupancy was strong at 67.4%, up 1.4 percentage points from a year ago. Comparing this week to the same one over the past five years, it and weekday occupancy from Tuesday to Thursday were the highest since 2023.
U.S. hotel ADR grew by 3.9% Sunday through Wednesday, its largest increase of 2026 and of the past 15 weeks. The remaining days of the week saw ADR advance by 1.9% with the weekend slightly better 2.1%.
Growth this week was spread across the country with 72% of hotel markets increasing in demand. Demand in the top 25 U.S. hotel markets increased 4.4% with ADR rising 5%, resulting in a 9.1% RevPAR gain. Four of the top 25 markets saw RevPAR advance by more than 20% including New Orleans, Las Vegas, Orange County (Anaheim), and Orlando.
New Orleans saw its first positive RevPAR week since New Year’s, as Mardi Gras aligned with Presidents Day weekend. Full-week RevPAR was up 31.4%, due to the 138.6% increase from Sunday through Fat Tuesday. New Orleans’ occupancy achieved 87.9% for peak Mardi Gras days (Friday to Tuesday), up 6 percentage points from Mardi Gras last year. Presidents Day aligning with Mardi Gras led to a 9.3-percentage-point increase in Sunday occupancy compared to that Sunday last year.
Las Vegas benefited from the confluence of Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day and the shift of the Lunar New Year celebration. In addition, Las Vegas hosted Western Veterinary Conference, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, the annual Chinese New Year in the Desert festival and several others. Room demand increased by 20% for the week along with a 7.2% ADR gain to drive RevPAR up 28.6%.
Las Vegas alone accounted for 80 basis points of the U.S. hotel RevPAR growth and 25% of demand growth this week. As the largest hotel market in the country, Las Vegas was a major headwind for the U.S. with room demand decreasing by more than 4 million rooms sold in 2025. In recent weeks, Las Vegas has shifted from a headwind to a tailwind, with February month-to-date RevPAR up 22.1%, mostly on rising hotel occupancy.
Hurricane markets are another headwind for U.S. hotel industry. On average, these markets subtracted 200,000 rooms sold and 109 basis points in RevPAR from the U.S. weekly totals since September 2025. This week, however, these markets are down just 4.6% in RevPAR, making them the lightest headwind since the end of September.
U.S. hotel markets outside of the top 25 saw RevPAR rise by 3.9%, mostly on occupancy. For the month, these markets are up 4.9% compared to the 6.3% gain in top 25 markets. Excluding the 13 hurricane markets, four greater Los Angeles markets due to the January 2025 wildfires, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., because of the 2025 presidential inauguration, the remaining 154 markets saw hotel RevPAR rise 5.6% during the week, 4.5% over the past three weeks, and 4.1% year to date.
Each hotel class saw both RevPAR and overall room demand grow. Luxury hotels had the largest increase across all key performance indicators, with RevPAR increasing 11.3% via ADR, which rose 7.1%. Over the past three weeks, all hotel classes have seen RevPAR grow, except for economy. However, declines in economy hotels have been slight at just under 1% in the fortnight prior to this week. This week, it also saw an increase.
While total demand growth was robust in the week, group demand among luxury and upper-upscale hotels was flat versus last year due to declines on Sunday and Monday of the holiday weekend. However, weekend group demand was up by more than 3%.
Global hotel RevPAR grows by double digits again
On a same-store and constant USD basis, global hotel RevPAR excluding the U.S. increased by 10.7%, its second week of double-digit growth. Like in the previous week, the RevPAR gain was led by ADR (+14.1%) with occupancy decreasing. Global room demand has declined over the fortnight with this week’s decrease led by countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) due to the beginning of Ramadan.
Like the prior week, China was again mostly responsible for the global ADR gain with rates rising 59.6% this week as 9 of 54 markets saw ADR growth of more than 100% due to the Lunar New Year holiday week from Feb. 17-22. Holiday locations including Sanya, Fuzhou, Jilin, and six others led the ADR surge. All but four of the 54 markets saw double-digit ADR gains with only two markets seeing rates retreat. Excluding China, global RevPAR was up 2.3% on a 5.8% ADR increase.
RevPAR in Italy grew 74.4% as the second week of the Winter Olympics drove RevPAR up 222% on a 169% ADR increase. Lombardy was the next closest Italian market with RevPAR up 37.9% followed by Turin (+23.3%).
Other countries seeing strong weekly hotel RevPAR growth included Japan (+23.9%), Australia (+22.9%), the Caribbean (+13%), and several others. Declines were led by the GCC and followed by Germany, Mexico and the U.K.
Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR. Cole Martin is an analytics and insights specialist at STR.