The hotel industry has made promising weekly gains in occupancy since its low point of the COVID-19 pandemic, while short-term rentals are nearing last year’s levels in revenue per available room (RevPAR).

(According to a joint analysis of 27 global markets by STR and AirDNA)

To measure the impact of the global pandemic on the two hospitality segments, STR and AirDNA analyzed performance of traditional hotels, hotel-comparable short-term rentals (studios and 1-bedroom units) and larger short-term rentals (2 bedrooms or more).

The analysis used weekly data from January 2019 through the week ending with 27 June 2020.

Key Findings:

• At the end of the studied period, hotel RevPAR in the 27 markets was 64.8% lower than the previous year. Short-term rental RevPAR, on the other hand, was down 4.5% year over year.

• Hotels bottomed out at 17.5% occupancy for the week ending 28 March, while short-term rentals fell to a low of 34.3%. Hotels were hit harder due to greater reliance on group demand and business travel. Largely a result of its further drop, hotel occupancy has since increased 124.0% from its low point.

• Occupancy decreases were felt uniformly within all 27 of the markets covered, with the exception of short-term rentals in Atlantic City. Among the worst-hit markets for both hotels and short-term rentals were New Orleans and Rome.

• Steeper declines in hotel average daily rate (ADR) came as travelers migrated toward Midscale and Economy class properties. Nashville and Austin were two markets to see more pronounced demand declines for higher-end hotels compared with the lower end of the market.

• Through the early stages of performance recovery, regional markets have performed better than their urban counterparts for both hotels and short-term rentals. Key examples include Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge in Tennessee and Australia’s Gold Coast.

The full analysis is available here.

About STR
STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for global hospitality sectors. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 15 countries with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an international headquarters in London, and an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. STR was acquired in October 2019 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. For more information, please visit www.str.com