Reductions in demand and occupancy to continue through third quarter

The hotel industry had severe reductions in demand and occupancy in March, and that weakened performance is expected to continue through third quarter 2020, according to CBRE’s U.S. hotel figures first quarter 2020 report.

Hotel demand was down 14.2 percent nationally in first quarter 2020 and 41.2 percent in March. Supply growth remained at 2 percent in the first quarter.

Luxury and upper-upscale hotels had the most dramatic decrease in occupancy, while economy and midscale hotels had the least severe drops in occupancy. Hotel closures increased rapidly across all chain scales in March. Independent hotels had the most closures.

Oahu, Hawaii, had the smallest drop in RevPAR (down 10.3 percent). Fort Lauderdale, Fla., (down 11.4 percent) and Miami (down 11.7 percent) also had relatively small RevPAR losses. No markets had RevPAR growth in thefirst quarter. The San Jose–Santa Cruz