AH MARCH 2024
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www.asianhospitality.com
8 ASIAN HOSPITALITY MARCH 2024
he state of the U.S. hotel industry
is strong going into 2024, according
to American Hotel & Lodging
Association's 2024 State of the Hotel
Industry report. Average hotel occupancy
is expected to reach nearly 63.6 percent in
2024, a slight increase from the 62.9 percent
in 2023 but below the 65.8 percent rate
recorded in 2019. Nominal RevPAR is also
anticipated to rise to $101.82 in 2024, up by 4
percent from 2023 and over 17 percent from
2019.
AHLA projects hotels will pay employees
a record sum of over $123 billion in wages,
salaries, and compensation in 2024,
surpassing $118 billion in 2023 and $102
billion in 2019. Hotels are expected to add
approximately 45,000 employees this year,
while the industry's workforce remains
nearly 225,000 below the almost 2.37 million
employed in 2019, the AHLA report said.
The report, projecting persistent
challenges for hoteliers in the face of
nationwide labor shortages as they
approach 2019 occupancy levels, draws on
data and analysis from Oxford Economics. It
was developed in collaboration with AHLA
Premier Partners: STR, Avendra, Ecolab,
Encore, JLL, Oracle, and Towne Park.
Record high in tax revenues
Hotels are projected to generate
approximately $54.4 billion in state and local
tax revenue in 2024, up from about $52.4
billion in 2023 and $43.4 billion in 2019, the
report added. The 2024 projection includes
over $26 billion in lodging-specific taxes.
Hotels are also expected to contribute
around $29 billion in federal tax revenue in
2024, compared to about $27.8 billion in 2023
and $24.3 billion in 2019.
“The expectation of higher occupancy
rates and record amounts of wages and
tax revenue point to a strong future,” said
Chip Rogers, AHLA’s president and CEO.
“But hoteliers face continued challenges,
including a nationwide labor shortage,
persistent inflation, high interest rates and
a federal regulatory agenda that’s making
it harder for hoteliers to do business.”
The inflation pace has slowed, but
prices remain high for numerous
hospitality-related products. AHLA
Premier Partner Avendra forecasts
sustained single-digit inflation through at
least the first two quarters of 2024 across
various items. Furthermore, nominal hotel
guest spending on lodging, transportation,
food and beverage, retail, and other
expenses is projected to reach $758.6
billion in 2024, nearly 5 percent higher
than 2023 and almost 24 percent above
2019 levels.
AHLA: State of the hotel industry
strong entering 2024
Hotels projected to achieve historic wages, generate record tax revenue this year
The state of the U.S. hotel industry is strong going
into 2024, according to American Hotel & Lodging
Association's 2024 State of the Hotel Industry
report, with average hotel occupancy expected to
reach nearly 63.6 percent.
A
lawsuit filed in federal court in Wash-
ington state alleges that STR, owned
by commercial real estate information
researcher CoStar Group, along with several
major hotel companies conspired to inflate
luxury hotel rates. The seven individuals named
as plaintiffs in the lawsuit seek to make it a
class-action filing on behalf of every person
who stayed at the defendants’ hotels from Feb-
ruary 2020 until the present for an unspecified
amount.
CoStar and hotel companies including IHG
Hotel & Resorts, Marriott International and
Hyatt Hotels Corp., entered an exchange of
“competitively-sensitive information about their
prices, supply, and future plans” in violation of
the antitrust provisions of the Sherman Act,
according to the lawsuit. STR and most of the
other defendants in the suit did not respond to
requests for comment in time for this article, but
a spokesperson for IHG said the company could
not comment on pending litigation.
The alleged price fixing happened in major
cities including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles,
New York, San Diego, Denver, Washington, D.C.,
and Seattle. The lawsuit focuses on STR’s “For-
ward STAR” product that was expanded into many
of those markets in April after launching in 17 of
the country’s 25 largest hotel markets, including
Las Vegas, New York City, Los Angeles, Washing-
ton, D.C., Boston and Phoenix.
Forward STAR allows hotel property and port-
folio users to benchmark the next 365 days of
occupancy on the books against the competition
and market.
“The exchange of this information allows
participating hotels to set prices higher than
they would have been absent this agreement to
exchange information,” the lawsuit said. “This is
price fixing in its modern form and is illegal under
the Sherman Act.”
Lawsuit alleges STR’s ‘Forward STAR’
program violates antitrust laws
Plaintiffs say the information exchanged by large hotel
companies allowed them to fix prices in certain markets
A lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that STR,
owned by commercial real estate researcher
CoStar Group, along with several major hotel
companies conspired to inflate luxury hotel
rates in several large city markets.
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