Like past holiday periods this year, there was more record-breaking screening data from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration over Labor Day weekend.

More than 17 million people were screened by the TSA from Aug. 29 to Sept. 4, which makes it the busiest Labor Day travel period on record. Screening data peaked on Friday, Aug. 30 at 2.91 million people.


While screening data for air travel continues to break records, it's not necessarily leading to increased hotel performance, said Emmy Hise, senior director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group.

"Both July and August achieved more than a 5% TSA passenger increase; however, U.S. hotel occupancy is not breaking records or growing at that level. Yet, more people are traveling, leading to the question of where people are staying," she said.

Hotel occupancies in July were slightly down, with weekend occupancy down year over year while weekday occupancy was up.

"This points to the slowdown of domestic leisure travel to hotels and the uptick in business-related travel. Leisure travelers could be opting for cruises, alternative accommodations or traveling abroad during the summer season," she said.

Hise said that preliminary August data is showing stronger hotel performance than in July, with occupancy growing and higher average daily rate growth.

"August could be considered a transition month, with some families taking the last vacation before the school year and others buckling down," she said. "Overall, the trend holds, and weekday travel is driving August hotel performance, while weekend performance continues to soften."