By Rico Louw
CJ Contributor

June was just the second month in 2018 with growth across the Caribbean hotel industry’s three key performance indicators (KPIs).

Occupancy rose slightly (+0.2%) for the third month in a row. Average daily rate and revenue per available room grew at healthier rates, +3.2% and +3.4%, respectively. In fact, both the absolute ADR (US$190.55) and absolute RevPAR level (US$126.42) were the highest for any June on record in the Caribbean.

When looking at a larger data set, second-quarter performance was mostly flat: occupancy (+0.3%), ADR (-0.1%) and RevPAR (-0.2%).

On the islands where STR maintains a sufficient reporting sample, Curacao experienced the highest rise in June occupancy (+18.5%) and the second-largest increase in RevPAR (+36.6%), while the Cayman Islands registered the only other double-digit increase in occupancy (+17.0%) and the largest jump in RevPAR (+37.2%).

St. Lucia registered the largest lift in ADR (+26.7%) and a double-digit increase in RevPAR (+23.4%).

Bermuda reported the largest decrease in ADR  at -13.6 percent.

Puerto Rico performance growth remained strong, with double-digit increases in both ADR (+17.7%) and RevPAR (+18.2%).

Occupancy on the island rose 0.4%, but that was due to a continued downward trend in supply (-19.2%). Demand dropped 18.9% year over year. As we noted several months back, many hotels that were initially used to house hurricane relief workers may have closed for renovation.

Rico Louw is Client Account Manager at STR. For questions regarding hotel data reporting in the Caribbean, please contact Louw at rlouw@str.com.