Extended-Stay Hotel Performance Varies Widely by Location

This is a follow-up to my last two posts about how schizophrenic local U.S. hotel markets are right now.  Some are booming, and others are not.

Highland Group performs nearly all of our feasibility studies.  They are the authority on the Extended Stay segment of the U.S. hotel industry.  The following summary of their most recent quarterly study of the industry confirms that “the industry” is either great, poor or somewhere in between, depending on the local market:

“The Highland Group’s much anticipated annual report on the US extended-stay hotel industry for 2017 is now hot off the press. This year two reports and a subscription option are available. The US Extended-Stay Lodging Market report covers the US and the 100 Largest Markets report features the nation’s 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Major results for extended-stay hotels include:

• Room nights available up 6.2% compared to 2015
• Room night demand up 5.4% over the last year
• Rooms under construction at record high
• Average rate up 4.2% compared to 2015
• RevPar up 3.5% over last year
• Double-digit RevPar growth in 13 MSAs
• RevPar declines in 24 MSAs
• Double-digit supply growth forecast in more than one third of MSAs in 2017
• No supply growth expected in more than 30 MSAs in 2017″

What’s not obvious in this summary is that it only include the nation’s top 100 markets.  That includes ONLY larger markets, such as Harrisburg, PA and Frederick, MD for instance; but it ignores the markets, such as York and Lancaster, PA where most of OUR hotels are located.  The advent of Hilton’s robust Home2 Suites brand is disrupting the extended-stay segment in these smaller markets that are not included in the Highland study.