by Calculated Risk on 3/04/2021 11:56:00 AM

From CoStar: STR: US Weekly Hotel Occupancy Decreases for First Time Since January

U.S. weekly hotel occupancy dipped slightly from the previous week, according to STR‘s latest data through Feb. 27.

Feb. 21-27, 2021 (percentage change from comparable week in 2020):

• Occupancy: 47.5% (-25.8%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$96.72 (-25.2%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$45.90 (-44.5%)

The week-over-week decrease was the country’s first since late January. Florida, California, and New York reported the largest drops in demand. Texas, on the other hand, led the nation in room nights sold as hotels continued to house residents displaced by winter storm damage. The state’s occupancy reached a pandemic high of 57.3%, up a full point from the week prior.
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 2021, black is 2020, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2009 (the worst year since the Great Depression for hotels prior to 2020).

Even when occupancy increases to 2009 levels, hotels will still be hurting.

In a few weeks, the year-over-year comparisons will be easy - since occupancy declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic - but occupancy will still be down significantly from normal levels.

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