Hospitality Projected to Surpass US Economy in 2024

The U.S. hospitality industry should perform at a better rate than the overall U.S. economy in 2024, commercial real estate analytics company CoStar reports.

According to Amanda Hite, president of CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm STR, the industry had a good year in 2023, with record highs in the average daily room rate and revenue for hotel rooms. During the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in January, she stated the growing employment of college-educated professionals and amount of households making more than US$100,000 annually as reasons why she believes the hospitality industry will outpace the nation’s economy. These groups prioritize travel and are expected to grow 3% in 2024.

Hite also mentioned increasing corporate profits, poised to grow 10% in 2024 according to Oxford Economics, as a good indicator of business travel spending.

“The good news is average daily rate growth is expected to pace above inflation for the foreseeable future,” Hite said.

At the event, Laura Resco, hotel market analytics firm HotStats director of hotel intelligence, also forecasted that the industry’s profit margins would be stabilizing this year. “For 2024, we expect this trend to continue stabilizing on profit margins slightly lower than we were in 2019,” she said, anticipating  a moderate increase in total revenue.