U.S. GOPPAR Slips for First Time in 2019

It was a good run, but it couldn’t last. April was the first month of the year to see a year-over-year decline in profit per room at hotels in the U.S., as a drop across all revenue centers was impacted by rising costs, according to the latest data tracking full-service hotels from HotStats.GOPPAR fell by 3.7 percent YOY to $118.51. Still, YTD profit per room is positive at 1.6 percent YOY.

The month’s fall was led by a decline in RevPAR, which dropped by 1.6 percent YOY to $179.24, as decreases were suffered in both room occupancy (down 0.6 percentage points) and achieved average room rate (down 0.9 percent).

This marked the first time hotels in the U.S. recorded a monthly YOY decline in achieved average room rate since September 2017.

Further YOY declines were recorded in Food & Beverage (down 1.3 percent) and Conference & Banqueting (down 2.1 percent) revenue, on a per-available-room basis.

In line with the decline in rate, a 0.6-percent YOY decrease in TRevPAR to $289.64 signaled the end of a successful run of growth in this measure, which has fallen only once since September 2017.

Payroll levels increased by 3.2 percent YOY to $95.17 on a per-available-room basis—equivalent to 32.9 percent of total revenue. 

Profit & Loss Key Performance Indicators – U.S. (in USD)

The decline in profit is a blow since the last drop was recorded back in fall 2018. However, the hope is that it’s a blip and subsequent months will swing back to positive growth. But with RevPAR down for the month and only narrowly up year-to-date, coupled with an ongoing rise in costs, driving profitability becomes that much more challenging.
—David Eisen, director of hotel intelligence, Americas, hotstats

Miami had pronounced difficulty, with GOPPAR off 14.2 percent YOY in April, a likely byproduct of additional room supply that hit the area. Close to 2,500 rooms have opened in Miami-Dade County in the last 12 months.

As a result, room occupancy in the month plunged by 6.3 percentage points to 79.7 percent, which contributed to a 14.3-percent decrease in ancillary revenues.

The drop in profit came in spite of a 4.3-percent saving in payroll to $69.10 on a per-available-room basis.

Profit & Loss Key Performance Indicators – Miami (in USD)

Hotels in Dallas provided a bright spot in a generally sour month of performance across the U.S., recording a 1.1-percent increase in GOPPAR in April to $88.14.

This was the city’s third consecutive month of GOPPAR growth and came despite a 1.0-percent decline in RevPAR, which was primarily due to a 1.4-percentage-point decrease in room occupancy.

The growth in profit was also against a 7.0-percent increase in payroll levels on a per-available-room basis to $59.62.

Profit & Loss Key Performance Indicators – Dallas (in USD)