Report Shows Third Consecutive Week of Hotel Demand Growth
Occupancy still under 30 percent, but STR says numbers indicate industry may have hit bottom in early April
Reports from STR, which tracks hotel industry statistics, showed a third consecutive week of increased room demand. The numbers “provide further hope that early April was the performance bottom,” said Jan Freitag, STR senior vice president of lodging insights. Year-over-year comparisons continue to show dramatically lower performance against the same week in 2019, including occupancy levels at 28.6 percent, a nearly 60 percent drop from the previous year.
However, the past week was the first to show solid evidence of leisure demand as weekend occupancy grew in states that have significantly eased mitigation efforts, according to Freitag. He predicted the leisure segment would be the first to see demand bounce back. Among the more interesting statistics, Freitag noted occupancy in New York City was 44.9 percent, up from 41 percent the previous week.
