by Calculated Risk on 9/24/2020 02:45:00 PM

From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: US hotel results for week ending 19 September

U.S. hotel occupancy was nearly flat from the previous week, according to the latest data from STR.

13-19 September 2020 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019):

• Occupancy: 48.6% (-31.9%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$95.84 (-28.9%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$46.54 (-51.6%)
...
Demand rose slightly (+0.3%), and the highest occupancy markets were once again those housing displaced residents from Hurricane Laura and western wildfires, with California South/Central showing the highest level in the metric (74.7%). The Louisiana South (72.8%) and Louisiana North (72.3%) markets were also among the top five highest occupancy levels for the week.
emphasis added

The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.

Click on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2020, dash light blue is 2019, blue is the median, and black is for 2009 (the worst year since the Great Depression for hotels - before 2020).

There was some boost by Hurricane Laura and the western fires, but it seems unlikely business travel will pickup significantly in the Fall.

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