COVID-19 webinar summary: 5 key points on U.S. & Canada (26 March)

Without a doubt, COVID-19 is having a devastating impact on the hotel industry. U.S. RevPAR fell by double digits for the third week in a row, dropping 69.5 for the week ending 21 March—the steepest RevPAR decline for any week in STR’s database. Unfortunately, the declines is expected to worsen in future weeks

As STR continues its commitment to keeping the hospitality industry updated during the COVID-19 outbreak, our webinar series will provide in-depth updates on global regions. However, if you’re unable to watch the full hour session during this stressful period, you can find a summary of the key points below.

Room nights sold drops by half

For the week ending 21 March, 11 million room nights were sold in the U.S. However, that was less than half of the rooms sold during the week ending 7 March (23 million).

Meeting hotels the most affected

Luxury and Upper Upscale class hotel performance has been more affected due to cancellations around meeting and group business. Economy class hotels, saw the lowest RevPAR decline (-47.7%) for the week ending 21 March.

Urban hotels posted biggest RevPAR declines

As per location, it hasn’t been a surprise that Urban and Resort hotels have posted the steepest RevPAR declines. However, Interstate properties have seen less RevPAR impact due to transportation companies still working. The same happened to the hotels located in small towns, which are isolated from severe demand declines. However, the absolute RevPAR level in those areas is already fairly small.

Montreal posted Canada’s steepest RevPAR drop

For the week ending 21 March, Montreal posted a 77.3 drop in RevPAR followed by Toronto (-77.0%) and Ottawa (-76.8%).

Canada: Four in five rooms are empty

STR’s most recent data showed that around four of five rooms on average were empty in Canada. Canada’s absolute occupancy remained below 30% as late as 21 March.

Watch the full webinar recording here. For further insights into the impact of COVID-19 on global hotel performance, please visit our COVID-19 hub.