Certified Hotel Industry Analyst (CHIA)

In STR methodology, the ‘Class’ segment categorizes independent hotels alongside affiliated hotels by aligning the independent property’s ADR with the ADR of chain scales in that market. Options mentioning amenities, star ratings, or a separate independent class are incorrect, as those do not dictate STR Class assignments.

RevPAR is calculated by dividing total room revenue ($18,000) by total rooms available (200), resulting in $90.00. ADR is total room revenue divided by rooms sold ($18,000 / 150 = $120.00), making RevPAR lower because it factors in the 50 unsold rooms.

To protect individual property data confidentiality, STR strictly mandates that a competitive set must contain a minimum of four participating competitor properties (excluding the subject hotel) in North America and globally. The other options represent fabricated rules that do not exist in STR guidelines.

An ARI above 100 means the hotel’s ADR is higher than the comp set average, while an MPI below 100 means its occupancy is lower than the comp set average. This indicates a strategy or market reality where higher rates are achieved at the expense of occupancy volume.

In STR Pipeline tracking, ‘Under Construction’ is strictly defined as projects where physical construction has begun, such as breaking ground or pouring foundations. Projects in planning, financing, or bidding stages fall under ‘Final Planning’ or ‘Planning’ phases.

Percent change is calculated as (This Year – Last Year) / Last Year. The hotel’s RevPAR grew by 10% (($110-$100)/$100), while the comp set grew by 5% (($105-$100)/$100), meaning the hotel captured a larger share of the market’s revenue growth.

A management company operates the hotel on a daily basis, handling staffing and operations. An asset manager represents the owner’s financial interests, focusing on long-term real estate value, capital expenditures, and monitoring the management company’s performance.

STR Trend Reports are designed to provide historical performance metrics (Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR) for a specific, user-defined group of hotels or market segment over a multi-year period. Pipeline reports show future supply, and HOST reports show profitability rather than standard historical top-line performance.

To protect confidentiality, STR requires that any change to a competitive set involves a net change of at least two properties (e.g., adding one and dropping one). This prevents a user from isolating the exact performance data of a single property by comparing the STAR reports before and after the change.

Index is calculated by dividing the subject hotel’s metric by the comp set’s metric and multiplying by 100. ($60 / $50) * 100 = 120. An RGI over 100 means the hotel is capturing more than its fair share of revenue. It does not guarantee higher NOI, as expenses are not factored into RevPAR.

In standard STR reporting for North America and most global markets, ‘Weekday’ is defined as Sunday through Thursday, and ‘Weekend’ is defined strictly as Friday and Saturday. This standardization allows for consistent benchmarking of leisure vs. corporate demand across markets.

STR’s geographic categorization strictly follows a descending hierarchy: Continent, Sub-Continent, Country, Market, and Tract (also known globally as Submarket). Markets are larger geographic areas (like a major city), and Tracts/Submarkets are smaller subsets within those markets (like a specific downtown or airport area).

The HOST (Hotel Operating Statistics) Report, or Profitability Report, is STR’s primary tool for analyzing revenues, expenses, and gross operating profit. STAR and Trend reports focus on top-line performance metrics (Occ, ADR, RevPAR) and do not include expense line items.

In STR STAR reports, the competitive set figures always exclude the subject hotel’s data. This ensures the subject hotel is being benchmarked against a purely external average, preventing its own performance from skewing the target it is trying to measure against.

Occupancy is the ratio of demand to supply. If supply grows at a faster rate (5%) than demand (2%), the denominator is growing faster than the numerator, resulting in a lower overall occupancy percentage despite the absolute increase in demand.

STR Weekly STAR reports are typically processed and delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week. They cover the performance data of the immediately preceding week, which is defined by STR as Sunday through Saturday.

STR utilizes non-geographic Location categories to group hotels with similar demand drivers. The ‘Interstate’ category is specifically applied to properties located near major highway interchanges that rely heavily on pass-through transient traffic rather than local destination demand.

Taking a simple average of monthly percentages is mathematically flawed because months have varying numbers of days (e.g., February vs. March). YTD metrics must be calculated by aggregating the total raw demand (rooms sold) and dividing it by the total raw supply (rooms available) over the entire period.

To maintain strict confidentiality of individual hotel performance, STR requires that any ad-hoc report, including Trend Reports, must contain data from a minimum of four participating properties. Academic researchers frequently purchase STR data, but they must still adhere to all isolation and confidentiality rules.

In STAR report rankings, ‘1’ represents the highest performing property. An ADR rank of ‘2 of 6’ means the hotel has the second-highest rate among the six hotels (subject plus five competitors). An Occupancy rank of ‘6 of 6’ means it has the absolute lowest occupancy in the set.