Excerpt from STR
Occupancy in the U.S. reached 68.6% for the week of 15-21 May 2022, which was the highest level since July 2021. To add some perspective, since the start of the pandemic, weekly occupancy has only surpassed 65% on 17 occasions with seven of the occurrences happening this year and the remainder seen last summer. Furthermore, year-to-date occupancy is 60% versus 51% a year ago. Weekly average daily rate (ADR) advanced to US$152, the third highest level of the pandemic-era and 13% higher than the comparable week of 2019. More importantly, revenue per available room (RevPAR) reached its highest level (US$104) since the start of the pandemic.
For the second consecutive week, New York City led the nation in occupancy (89.4%), powered by graduation ceremonies for Columbia University’s and New York University’s classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022. This was also the city’s highest occupancy of the pandemic-era. In total, 18 markets reported their highest occupancy levels since the pandemic began, including San Francisco (79.0%), Boston (77.3%), Seattle (76.2%), Washington, D.C. (76.1%), Chicago (71.5%), Philadelphia (69.8%), and Minneapolis (63.9%).
Seventy percent of reporting hotels saw occupancy surpass 60% during the week—the most since summer last year. Of the 600 large (300+ rooms) urban location hotels, 80% had weekly occupancy above 60%. Of those hotels, 42% reported occupancy above 80%, which was the most since the beginning of the pandemic.
Weekday (Monday-Wednesday) occupancy, a barometer for business travel, increased to 67.2%, which was the highest of the year and the fourth highest since the start of the pandemic. Among the Top 25 Markets, weekday occupancy (72.2%) was the best since March 2020, with group demand the second highest. The Top 25 Markets also saw their highest weekday ADR (US$184) and RevPAR (US$133) of the pandemic-era. Eight of the Top 25 Markets, including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. also reported their highest weekday occupancy of the pandemic era led by NYC (91.1%) and San Francisco (82.7%). Fourteen of the Top 25 Markets saw weekday occupancy surpass 70%, the most since the pandemic began. Nearly half of large urban hotels reported weekday occupancy above 80%, which was again the most in the pandemic-era
Strong occupancy also prevailed in central business districts (CBDs), where weekly occupancy topped 73%, which was the highest level of the past 27 months. Along with strong occupancy, ADR (US$244) and RevPAR (US$180) also reached a pandemic high. Five of the 20 CBDs tracked reported occupancy above 80%, led by the New York Financial District (92%), which we include with the 19 other CBD submarkets. Weekday CBD occupancy was the same as the weekly total with New York Financial District reaching 94.5%, which was the highest level for the submarket since late 2019. Thinking of business demand through the chain scale lens, luxury (72.2%), upper upscale (72.3%) and upscale (74.6%) hotels reported their highest occupancy since the start of the pandemic.
Click here to read complete article at STR.