The U.S. hotel industry continued to perform well during the third quarter despite slowing employment growth and tepid gross domestic product.

Choice Hotels International (CHH) - Get Report , operator of brands such as Comfort Inn and Econo Lodge, saw its domestic revenue per available room, or RevPar, rise 5.8% year over year in the quarter. 

RevPar is a key industry metric that is calculated by multiplying a hotel's average daily room rate, or ADR, by its occupancy rate. Choice Hotels' occupancy levels improved by about 120 basis points from the prior year amid more demand for rooms from business and leisure travelers. 

Choice Hotels' competitors Marriott (MAR) - Get Report and Hilton (HLT) - Get Report also enjoyed a strong third quarter as RevPar rose by 4.2% and 5.8%, respectively, year over year.  Still, in spite of the gains in RevPar and occupancy, Choice Hotels' third-quarter earnings only matched Wall Street profit forecasts calling for 72 cents a share.  

Furthermore, the rate of occupancy and RevPar growth was slower than experienced in the second quarter. The company also tweaked its full year earnings guidance to $2.18 to $2.20 a share from $2.18 to $2.22 a share previously. 

When asked if Choice Hotels was feeling the effects of a slowing U.S. economy, company President and CEO Steve Joyce downplayed any impact.

"It's not the economy. For the third quarter we ended up a little short of where we thought as there were some technical reasons -- there were two fewer Fridays, and Labor Day weekend shifted; also August was a little slower," explained Joyce. He added that demand in "September boomed back, so we are not concerned at all as we are seeing really strong results."

According to industry research firm STR, the U.S. hotel industry has seen a 6.7% increase in RevPar this year through September. RevPar rose 8% in September, said STR, giving support to Joyce's comments. Occupancy levels across all U.S. hotels averaged 65.4% in the 12 months through September, the highest in any one-year period since 1988, and the average daily room rate also reached a record, STR said. 

Looking toward 2016, Joyce expects Choice Hotels to continue to drive gains in RevPar and occupancy -- provided the U.S. economy doesn't fall off a cliff. 

"We've done well without anything from GDP. The hotel business is more reliant on employment, consumer confidence and supply/demand -- supply/demand is in its best shape it has ever been. We think as long as employment stays where it is or improves a little, then we are in great shape," Joyce said.

In addition to watching trends in employment and consumer confidence, Joyce and other hotel executives are eagerly watching what happens with Starwood Hotels (HOT) , which is rumored to have received buyout interest from Hyatt (H) - Get Report and several Chinese firms, according to Bloomberg Business and other news outlets. 

"Scale is king in the hotel business," says Joyce. "If someone that is an existing competitor picks Starwood up, that will make that competitor a lot stronger than us if it's a Hyatt, it would give Hyatt significantly more scale, more buying power with the online travel agencies and will make them a player with the top four or five hotel companies."