Curaçao Continues to Lead Caribbean Hotel Growth
By Rico Louw
CJ Contributor
Caribbean hotels reported positive overall performance in August driven by strong pricing power, according to data from STR.
On the islands where STR maintains a sufficient reporting sample, the Bahamas experienced the highest rise in occupancy (+14.5%), but new rooms entering the market recently contributed to a 1.9% drop in ADR. Curacao registered the only other double-digit increase in occupancy (+11.5%) and exponential growth in RevPAR (+23.5%). Aruba posted the largest lift in ADR (+16.0%).
It was the latest month of strong growth for Curaçao, which continues to pace the region in occupancy growth in recent months.
Above: the Baoase hotel in Curacao.
When comparing the data against August 2017, occupancy was almost flat (-0.4%), but average daily rate (ADR) grew 4.8% and pushed a 4.3% rise in revenue per available room (RevPAR).
When looking at Puerto Rico, occupancy fell 3.3% to 71.1%. The island’s ADR increase was the second-highest in the region (+14.5% to US$178.94), which helped RevPAR increase 10.8% to US$114.85.
Nassau in The Bahamas.
Performance comparisons will be rather erratic as we process September data later this month. That will continue for the remaining months of 2018 as we benchmark against the post-hurricane time period of last year.
On the development front, there are currently 42 hotels that account for a total of 10,576 rooms In Construction in the Caribbean.
Rico Louw is Client Account Manager at hotel analytics firm STR. To reach him, please email rlouw@str.com.
