May 28--NEW DELHI -- Indian hotels reported lower occupancy, a drop in room rates and revenue per room in April, which marks the beginning of the peak local travel season, according to data compiled by STR Global, which tracks hotel industry data.

Hotel occupancy declined 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier to 58.2%, the lowest among key Asia Pacific markets including China, Australia and Singapore.

Average daily rates declined by 2.1% to Rs.5,858.94, while revenue per available room or RevPAR fell 3.4% to Rs.3,408.72.

Hotels in other markets in the Asia-Pacific region also reported a drop in the three key performance metrics in April.

Occupancy in the Asia-Pacific region fell 0.5% to 68.6%. The average daily rate dropped 2.3% to $127.2 and revenue per available room dropped 2.8% to $87.22, according to STR Global.

"RevPAR in Delhi and NCR (national capital region) dropped 20.5% year to date through April, as the supply and demand imbalance in the market continues to create challenges," said Elizabeth Winkle, managing director of STR Global.

The Asia-Pacific region has the largest number of hotel rooms under development globally, with Mumbai having the second-largest room pipeline in the region at 5,117.

The hotel development pipeline comprises 1,804 hotels totalling 387,179 rooms, according to the April STR Global Construction Pipeline Report.

The total active pipeline data does not include projects in the pre-planning stage.

Compared with Asia Pacific, the Middle East-Africa region, European hotel industry and the US hotel industry reported positive performance in April, the data showed.

"Considering the business environment and general trend over last two-to-three quarters, average room rates and occupancy have remained subdued in the initial months of this year as well. We are not expecting any significant change in the overall trend soon," said Subrata Ray, senior group vice-president and sector head at credit rating company Icra Ltd.

"While supply pressures in specific markets have been (on) expected lines, the business environment over the last several quarters has been weaker than our earlier expectations. The performance is likely to remain subdued for some more time -- improvements, if any, may materialize only towards the end of the year, depending on the overall economic environment."

Industry experts say European and the US hotel industry experienced a fairly strong correction in previous years, and thus reported improved metrics.

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