Positive hotel performance news comes from Frankfurt, the city of trade fairs: Recent data from STR Global, the leading provider of market information for the world’s hotel industry, shows the direct impact of trade fairs on the region during recent weeks. Both the Musikmesse and ProLight + Sound fairs took place in Frankfurt on 1-4 April this year, rather than in March as in previous years. This explains the positive change in year-on-year revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the region as seen on the left-hand side of the chart below. Similarly for Wiesbaden, the peak around 18 April coincides with the start of the Internistenkongress, which was also held in March last year. It must be noted that performance in March suffered as these fairs moved forward in the calendar.

The European hotel industry reported mixed year-over-year results when reported in U.S. dollars, euros and British pounds for April 2009, according to data compiled by STR Global.  Figures for occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room ranged from double-digit losses to single-digit gains, depending on the market and the currency used for comparison.

The U.S. hotel industry posted declines in all three key performance measurements during the week of 17-23 May 2009, according to data from STR.

The Middle East/Africa region reported declines in all three key measurements in year-over-year results when reported in U.S. dollars for April 2009, according to data compiled by STR Global.  The region’s occupancy dropped 13.0 percent to 66.8 percent; average daily rate decreased 1.3 percent to US$164.41; and revenue per available room decreased 14.1 percent to US$109.80.

STR and HotelNewsNow.com signed Magnuson Hotels as the Founding Sponsor of the inaugural Hotel Data Conference, which will be held 4-5 August, 2009, in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to data compiled by STR Global, in March 2009 European RevPAR fell 14% year-on-year, split between declines in both average daily rate (ADR) and occupancy.