by Calculated Risk on 10/21/2021 02:05:00 PM

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

From CoStar: STR: US Hotel Occupancy Reaches Highest Level Since Mid-August

U.S. hotel occupancy reached its highest level since mid-August, while room rates dipped from the previous week, according to STR‘s latest data through October 16.

October 10-16, 2021 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*):

• Occupancy: 65.0% (-10%)
• verage daily rate (ADR): $134.03 (-1.4%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): $87.15 (-11.3%)

Week-over-week demand growth came almost exclusively from the Sunday ahead of Columbus Day. Overall for the three-day holiday weekend (8-10 October), occupancy reached 72% as compared with 75% in 2019.

*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.

Click 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.

Usually weekly occupancy increases to around 70% in the weeks following Labor Day due to renewed business travel.   However, this year, so far, business travel has been lighter than leisure travel in 2021.