Hospitality analytics firm STR thinks a full recovery in US hotel revenue is still years away.
A report by STR and Tourism Economics projects 2023 to 2024 before the industry gets back to pre-pandemic levels.
Demand will recover possibly by 2023 but revenues will lag.
They expect average occupancy rates to be no more than 40% by the year-end and about 52% in 2021.
This is a slight downgrade from STR’s forecast in June.
That will allow hotels to operate ‘at a relatively normal level’ about one year from now, said Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks.
He expects stronger growth will become apparent in the second half of next year, as the business travel market recovers.
"After the great financial crisis, it took two years to get back to peak levels of demand," Sacks said during a presentation at STR’s 2020 Hotel Data Conference.
"Even with a slight improvement in ADR projections through 2021, pricing confidence will lag an eventual rise in occupancy. As a result, the $32 billion gain we forecast for room revenue from 2020 to 2021 will push the industry to a level that is still 32.5% lower than 2019," said Amanda Hite, STR president.
A recent report by trade group American Hotel & Lodging Association says hotels are struggling to bring back furloughed workers as an expected steady recovery fizzled out when Covid-19 cases spiked across several states in the past few weeks.
Hotels have been pushing for further relief funds to help them through the crisis.
Written by Ray Montgomery, US editor
