In year-over-year measurements, the industry's revenue per available room fell by just over 13 percent to end last week at US$59.78-down from US$68.86  during the comparable week in 2007. The U.S. hotel industry's year-over-year occupancy rate fell 11.6 percent to finish the week at 56.3 percent (63.7 percent in 2007). Average daily rate dropped 1.7 percent to end the week at US $106.26 (US$108.15 in 2007).

"It is disappointing and certainly worse than we expected," said Mark Lomanno, president of STR. "The deteriorating economic conditions have become so pervasive that it is affecting all areas of travel-nearly 
all of which have an impact on hotels.

"Having said that, we expect the worst to be over in the second quarter of 2009, and we expect improvement in the overall hotel industry performance in the second half of 2009," he added.

One bright spot for the week ending 15 November is that 11 of the Top 25 markets showed year-over-year increases in ADR: Atlanta, Georgia (+6.0 percent); Chicago, Illinois (+0.7 percent); Denver, Colorado (+4.1 percent); Houston, Texas (+12.2 percent); Nashville, Tennessee (+5.3 percent); New Orleans, Louisiana (+10.1 percent); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (+2.6 percent); Phoenix, Arizona (+2.0 percent); Seattle, Washington (+0.6 percent); St. Louis, Missouri (+3.8 percent) and Washington, D.C. (+3.2 percent). Hotels in San Diego, California, reported a flat ADR performance for the week. With the exception of Houston (+29.2 percent), New   Orleans (+14.9 percent) and St. Louis (+1.2 percent), all Top 25 markets experienced RevPAR declines for the week.

"We remain steadfast in our belief that hotel operators who go to all lengths to hold their rate in this environment will have better strategic options available to them when the economy begins to turn around,"   said Lomanno. "We believe that discounting rate does very little to create incremental demand. Discounting should be the course of action only when all other options are exhausted."