Economic Policy Uncertainty and Hotel Operating Performance

•The impact of policy-related economic uncertainty on hotel operating performance is investigated.•Economic policy uncertainty index and STR’s property-level hotel data are used for data analysis.•Three operating performance measures are used: Occupancy rate, ADR, and RevPAR. GEE method is used for estimations.•Increase in contemporaneous policy-related economic uncertainty leads to decreases in the future occupancy, ADR and RevPAR.•Negative effect of economic policy uncertainty on performance is less severe for owner-operated hotels and luxury hotels.