Twin Cities hotels see huge jump in revenue thanks to Super Bowl

Hotels were indeed big winners of Super Bowl LII dollars.

Twin Cities hotels reported the highest increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) for a Super Bowl host market since Indianapolis hosted the Big Game in 2012.

During the weekend of Feb. 2-4, the Minneapolis/St. Paul hotel market posted an average occupancy level of 92.5 percent and an average daily rate (ADR) of $354.41.

As a result, RevPAR increased 626 percent compared with the same weekend last year.

"The combination of lower hotel supply and a typically slow time of year for the market resulted in extraordinary performance gains for Minneapolis," said Hannah Smith, a consultant with STR, which tracks hotel supply and demand.

Tennessee-based STR regularly analyzes Super Bowl hotel data and produced the report using information from more than 42,000 rooms at hotels in Minneapolis, St. Paul and a good number of suburbs.

Indianapolis had a higher percentage jump in revenue per available room but had a much smaller hotel inventory, STR said. RevPAR is a key measurement to track the health of a hospitality market.

Not surprisingly, hotels in downtown Minneapolis — where the game was played and most of the Super Bowl activities and events took place — performed the best.

Hotels in the Minneapolis central business district, better known as downtown, had a RevPAR increase of 873 percent for the weekend. Occupancy in downtown was 99 percent, and the average rate for the weekend was $492.38.

The weeks before the Super Bowl also boosted the market, with RevPAR 137 percent higher during the two-week lead up to the event.

Nicole Norfleet • 612-673-4495 Twitter: @nicolenorfleet