Canada’s hotel industry showed lower occupancy but continued growth in average daily rate (ADR).

January 2024 (percentage change from 2023):

• Occupancy: 49.6% (-1.7%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): CAD175.38 (+4.3%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): CAD87.00 (+2.6%)

“Transient occupancy fell 3.7% year over year, with most of the decline taking place on the weekends, suggesting that individuals are pulling back on discretionary spending,” said Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of hospitality analytics for Canada.

“Warm weather and a lack of snow in popular ski areas contributed to the shortfalls as well, with particularly steep occupancy declines in resorts across Western Canada. Whistler and Banff hotels, for example, recorded occupancy declines of 9% and 12%, respectively. On the positive side of the spectrum, the overall hotel sector is outperforming metrics in the wider economy, with the room rate growth outpacing the 2.9% inflation reading.”

Among the provinces and territories, Manitoba recorded the highest January 2024 occupancy level (58.8%), which was 8.1% below 2023.

Among the major markets, Toronto saw the highest occupancy (61.4%), up 2.2% over January 2023.

The lowest occupancy among provinces was reported in Prince Edward Island (28.6%), down 20.5% against 2023. At the market level, the lowest occupancy was reported in Edmonton (+2.9% to 44.3%).

“The return of group and international travel is expected to be among the main drivers of improvement this year,” said Baxter. “These demand sources should benefit Canada’s largest cities to a greater degree than other location types, and therefore urban hotel performance growth will likely outpace the national forecast.”

STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. 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