It was a sluggish start for the Caribbean’s hotel industry in January, according to new data from hotel benchmarking firm STR. 

The region’s hotel occupancy was 66.5 percent in January, which represented a 3.7 percent decline compared to the same month in 2019. 

That was accompanied by a 1.5 percent decline in average daily rates to $253.09, along with a 5.1 percent reduction in revenue per available room, according to the data. 

Overall revenue fell to 1.366 billion for the month, down by 2.6 percent from January 2019. 

STR’s report surveyed 1,967 properties comprising 261,810 rooms in the greater Caribbean region. 

— CJ