Though the ongoing government shutdown has undoubtedly put pressure on hotels throughout the greater Washington area, recent STR data shows that a clear-cut downtrend in the market has yet to materialize.
Between Jan. 13 and 19, hotels in the Washington metro area, which includes parts of Maryland and Virginia, saw occupancy surge 17.8%, from 51.1% to 60.2%, over the same period last year, marking the biggest occupancy jump by any top-25 market in the U.S. that week. D.C. hotels also saw revenue per available room (RevPAR) climb 30.7%, to $83.64, on the same week in 2018.
According to STR, some of the week's gains could be attributed to a calendar shift surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which fell on the 15th in 2018. This year, that Monday (Jan. 14) was a regular business day, with the MLK holiday celebrated on Jan. 21.
Meanwhile, the numbers are in stark contrast to Jan. 6 to 12 data released last week, which saw occupancy decline 20%, to 47.4%, and RevPAR fall 26.3%, to $58.89, compared with 2018.
Jan Freitag, STR senior vice president of lodging insights, blamed some of that week's sluggishness on the fact that January is typically a slow month for the nation's capital as well as on a slowdown in government-related business travel in the region.
"It's not that the government employees that are furloughed aren't traveling but more that the contractors and other people coming into D.C. to do business with the government, such as those from private industries and consulting firms, aren't traveling to the city," said Freitag. He added that if the shutdown extends well into February, when leisure and school travel tends to pick up, there could also be "some cause for concern."
Overall, however, Freitag stressed that additional weeks of data are needed before the extent of the shutdown's effect on D.C. hotels can be fully assessed.
"A few weeks of bad numbers will certainly hurt, but you can still work against that," said Freitag. "One or two weeks does not a trend make."
Concurrently, STR reported healthy nationwide numbers for the week of Jan. 13 to 19, with overall U.S. occupancy up 5%, to 58.4%, and RevPAR growing 8.5%, to $72.54. Average daily rate also rose; it was up 3.4%, to $124.32.