By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Caribbean’s hotel industry saw a strong rebound in September, according to the latest data from hotel analytics firm STR.

Caribbean hotel occupancy was 48.8 percent in September, a 6.9 percent increase over the same month in 2017 that was the region’s second positive year-over-year monthly change all year.

Of course, the improvement was in part due to last September’s major hurricanes — but the occupancy numbers were not far removed from previous Septembers in years like 2014 and 2015.

Average daily rates rose by 3.4 percent to $152.59 in September, while revenue per available room (RevPar) rose by 10.5 percent to $74.49.

For the year, Caribbean hotel occupancy is at 66.9 percent, a small 0.7 percent decline compared to the first nine months of 2017.

STR’s data surveyed 1,936 properties comprising 250,859 total rooms in the wider Caribbean region.

— CJ