Destination Travel Trends ADR is up slightly, but are bookings following?

It’s not always obvious: ADR at Inntopia/DestiMetrics Western mountain destinations strengthened slightly between May 31 and June 30, from a 0.9% gain to a 1.3% year-over-year gain (far right), and also picked up across all 3 price tiers.

But bookings didn’t necessarily follow. Properties priced at $250 and below saw year-over-year occupancy and RevPAR for the summer season drop between May 31 and June 30 (far left) while the other tiers saw increases, particularly in the mid-range.

So, are budget consumers simply not booking, are they moving up a tier (or two) to mid- / luxury-range as they feel better about the economy, or was last year’s economic pressure extra good to lower-priced properties, making this year a higher bar to clear? It’ll take time to know for sure, but this is a classic case of “it may not be what it seems.”

Stay tuned!