Data: Loyalty Contribution Continues to Rise Across U.S. Hotel Bookings

ROCKVILLE, MD—More than midway through this year, it is a good time to reflect on the hotel industry’s performance so far. Year-to-date (YTD) through June 2019, the percentage of total room nights booked by members of brand loyalty programs increased 4.4% year-over-year (YOY) to 53.9% of all room nights booked at hotel brands with existing loyalty programs, citing Kalibri Labs’ U.S. Hotel Industry Performance Overview (HIPO). When looking at bookings by source of business, Brand.com and OTA bookings continued their dueling track meet, each with 6.6% YTD growth YOY.

Guest-Paid RevPAR and COPE RevPAR* decreased 1.6% and 1.39% YOY, respectively, driven by occupancy declines of 1.9% YOY, and indicating only modest ADR growth. Nationally, length of stay decreased by 2.67% YOY, and each of the top 10 metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the U.S. HIPO showed considerable declines in length of stay. Booking lead time held steady at 23.6 days across all markets, chain scales and channels.

“While it’s encouraging to see guest paid ADR hold steady, or even show modest growth in some chain scales,” said Mark Lomanno, partner and senior advisor at Kalibri Labs. “There is some concern or trepidation in the RevPAR figures based on declining occupancy and very modest ADR growth in most markets. Weakening industry fundamentals caused by the rapidly changing nature of today’s lodging industry will require focused attention over the latter half of 2019 and into 2020.”