Hotel rates and revenue rise in 2018 Q1

U.S. hotel room demand was the highest on record for a first quarter, according to STR.

Minneapolis-St. Paul's first-quarter revenue per available room (RevPAR) surged 24% from a year earlier, as Minneapolis' hosting of Super Bowl LII in early February drove room rates up 19% to about $129 a night.

Miami-Hialeah's RevPAR jumped 17%, primarily on higher room rates, while Philadelphia's RevPAR rose 14% as occupancy advanced more than 5 percentage points to almost 65%.

Such gains more than offset the 11% RevPAR decline in Washington, D.C., where year-earlier figures were bolstered by President Donald Trump's inauguration festivities and the Women's March.

Detroit's RevPAR fell 3.2%, while San Francisco-San Mateo's RevPAR was down 2.3% as San Francisco finishes work on its convention center.

Overall, U.S. RevPAR rose 3.5%. The average daily rate advanced 2.5% to $127, while occupancy edged up 0.6 percentage points to 61.6%. Both occupancy and average daily rate were at all-time first-quarter highs.