Ink 48 Hotel, one of Hell's Kitchen's coolest bars, offering lush green outdoor space (Photo: NYCGO)
The US hotel industry has picked up quite a bit since its setback due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For 2021, the occupancy level was only at 57.6 pc, 12.6 pc less than occupancy in 2019. The average daily rate is also at USD 124.67, only 4.8 pc below that of 2019 levels. The RevPAR is also at USD 71.87, 16.8 pc behind that of 2019.
In 2020, the US hotel industry had faced a lot of challenges. It had failed to reach the 60 pc mark, only the second time since 2011. In 2021, however, the average daily rate of the hotels was the fourth highest on record. There is also significant improvement in revenue per available room, which in 2020 was the lowest in eight years. Due to the increasing demand for leisure travel, hotels are witnessing an improvement in pricing, especially near the weekend.
Despite the Omicron scare, the revenue available per available room remained near the 2019 levels for the week 50 in mid-December 2021. Apart from leisure travel, transient bookings remained comparatively strong. A number of states outperformed their 2019 RevPAR and witnessed a sharp increase. For December 2021, 34 states had exceeded their 2019 RevPAR level. The total count of near misses, with a RevPAR indexed score of more than 90, increased to 43. Maine led all the indexed states with a USD 18 RevPAR surplus from the comparable 2019 levels. Vermont, Utah and Idaho also topped the list with respective scores of 131, 127 and 126.
The steepest revenue per available room deficit was witnessed in San Francisco at 64.2 pc of 2019 level at USD 72.97 and Washington DC at 48.9 pc with USD 57.86. In totality, the top 25 markets showed a lower occupancy but higher average daily rates than other markets.
Only two RevPAR indices fell below 80 for December 2021, i.e., Washington DC with 62 points and New York with 77 points. In DC the RevPAR averaged at USD 82 which is USD 50 below the 2019 levels.
Weekday occupancy continued to be a drag on performance even though it was up two percentage points from the previous week to 45.3 pc, which was among the lowest weekday occupancy since early 2021. Sunday occupancy was particularly low at 39.2 pc before Monday through Wednesday occupancy hit 46.5 pc, but those three days were more than 14 percentage points lower than the same days of 2019.
Tampa, a city on the Tampa Bay, along Florida’s Gulf Coast reported the highest occupancy level among the top 25 markets. The city which is a major business centre and is known for its museums and other cultural offerings had a 68.4 pc occupancy level, though it is still 5.2 pc down from 2019’s benchmark.
Minneapolis, lying at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River, near the river’s confluence with the Minnesota River, the city famous for its cultural offerings reported 44.4 pc occupancy. Its counterpart, San Francisco in California, which also serves as a commercial, cultural and financial centre, reported occupancy of only 47.7pc.
Among the top 25 markets, none showed an improvement over the occupancy level, when compared to that of 2019. Miami however witnessed the largest average daily rate of USD 223.29 an increment of 14.7 pc to that of 2019, while Norfolk/Virginia Beach reported the highest growth in revenue per available room of 7.7 pc at USD 72.31.
