Hotel stock index closes 2019 up 29.5 percent

AS 2019 CAME to an end, the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index jumped 6.1 percent to 5,270, leading to a total 29.5 percent increase in the index for the entire year.

December’s Baird/STR index surpassed both the S&P 500 and the MSCI US REIT Index, which increased 2.9 percent and dropped 1.3 percent respectively. The hotel brand sub-index rose 7.1 percent from November to 8,605 while the hotel REIT sub-index increased 3.7 percent to 1,529.

“Hotel stocks ended the year on a positive note, and both the hotel brands and the hotel REITs outperformed their respective benchmarks in December,” said Michael Bellisario, Baird’s vice president and senior hotel research analyst.

December was a case where stock performance seemed aligned with industry metrics, said STR President Amanda Hite.

“December data is expected to provide a bit of a relief from the otherwise anemic growth rates the industry posted throughout the year. That said, we do not expect one month to materially change the trajectory of year-end results as RevPAR growth should come in around the expected sub-1 percent level,” Hite said. “Regardless, the industry posted another record year with regards to rooms available, rooms sold and rooms revenue. Likewise, absolute ADR and RevPAR are at their highest levels ever. We’re not currently projecting much of a change in either direction for 2020 as slower growth is the name of the game as we enter the 13th year of the RevPAR upcycle.”