On an “Industry overview” panel during Day One of The Lodging Conference, Ali Hoyt, senior director of consulting and analytics at STR, Hotel News Now’s parent company, started the conversation by going over “three things we’ve been thinking about at STR as it relates to the hotel industry.” The first is the fact that demand continues to outpace supply. “The supply development cycle has been growing at a much slower pace than prior cycles, still sitting below 2% new supply growth on a trailing 12-month basis,” she said. The second point Hoyt mentioned was the “lack of rate* growth, given we’re at a peak occupancy level.” “With demand still outpacing new supply, we’re seeing occupancy continue to grow,” she said. “The industry has been north of a 65% occupancy for 28 months and counting. At those record peaks, we would expect rate growth to be higher, taking more advantage of those peak levels to really push rate.” Get the full story at HNN