Note: To inform the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, STR will temporarily publish weekly communication for the Caribbean based on preliminary data. This preliminary data represents a percentage of STR's total sample for the region. Once monthly processing is complete, data points will likely appear different.

The Caribbean hotel industry recorded sharp year-over-year declines in the three key performance metrics during the week of 8-14 March 2020, according to preliminary data from STR.

In comparison with the week of 10-16 March 2019, the Caribbeanreported the following:

  • Occupancy: -18.4% to 65.7%
  • Average daily rate (ADR): -20.2% to US$240.98
  • Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -34.9% to US$158.40

Among data-sufficient islands within the Caribbean region, The Bahamas saw the steepest year-over-year decline in demand (-19.5%). That led to the second-largest decline in occupancy (-19.4% to 70.4%), which coupled with the largest drop in ADR (-25.4% to US$261.19), caused the steepest decline in RevPAR (-39.8% to US$183.75).

During the previous week, Puerto Rico was among the few Caribbean markets that did not report a decline in demand—showing demand growth of 7.8% over the same week in 2019. However, that changed in this most recent week of data as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on travel broadened. Puerto Ricoexperienced the greatest decline in occupancy (-20.9% to 61.2%) and one of the largest decreases in ADR (-11.3% to US$209.18), which resulted in a substantial drop in RevPAR (-29.9% to US$128.04).

The Dominican Republic registered the third-largest decrease in RevPAR (-25.9% to US$93.51), due to a nearly double-digit drop in occupancy (-9.9% to 69.6%) and the second-worst decline in ADR (-17.8% to US$134.30).

Barbados was among the least affected Caribbean markets but still recorded a double-digit decrease in RevPAR (-14.4% to US$237.22) due to decreases in occupancy (-7.2% to 81.6%) and ADR (-7.8% to US$290.64).

About STR

STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 15 countries with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an international headquarters in London, and an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. STR was acquired in October 2019 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. For more information, please visit str.com and costargroup.com.