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Thursday, October 07, 2021

Hotels: Occupancy Rate Down 9.2% Compared to Same Week in 2019

by Calculated Risk on 10/07/2021 04:16:00 PM

Note: Since occupancy declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic, CoStar is comparing to 2019.

U.S. hotel performance dipped from the previous week, according to STR‘s latest data through Oct. 2.

26 September through 2 October 2021 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*):

Occupancy: 61.7% (-9.2%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$130.87 (+1.2%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$80.78 (-8.2%)

*Due to the steep, pandemic-driven performance declines of 2020, STR is measuring recovery against comparable time periods from 2019.
emphasis added
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.

Hotel Occupancy RateClick on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2021, black is 2020, blue is the median, dashed purple is 2019, and dashed light blue is for 2009 (the worst year on record for hotels prior to 2020).

Note: Y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the seasonal change.

The Summer months had decent occupancy with solid leisure travel, and occupancy was only off about 7% in July and August compared to 2019.

But it is uncertain what will happen over the next couple of months with business travel.  Usually weekly occupancy increases to around 70% in the weeks following Labor Day due to renewed business travel.