A new report finds Canadian hotels are bouncing back nicely from the pandemic.
According to str.com, a hotel tracking website based in Tennessee, Canada’s monthly hotel performance improved from the previous month yet again, and room rates reached the highest level since September 2019,.
STR’s May 2022 data shows occupancy for the month at 63.4%, which is down a bit from May, 2019 (70.1%). But the average daily rate was up 2.8% to $171.37 CAD.
“Overall, May was a strong month for Canada hotels, with many of the segments that have lagged in recovery showing real improvement,” said Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of hospitality analytics for Canada. CoStar Group is the parent company of STR.
“The main recovery driver is still strong leisure demand, as a surplus in household savings is being spent on travel and hotels,” Baxter said. “Weekend metrics therefore benefited and continued on an upward trajectory, with room rates reaching double-digit growth and occupancy returning to pre-pandemic levels for the first time. Weekday demand (Monday through Wednesday) continues to lag, while Thursday and Sunday, which are typically check-out days for corporate and leisure guests, respectively, are bouncing back quicker than the other weekdays.”
The newly renovated lobby at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Toronto. Photo courtesy Sheraton Gateway Hotel.
“This could suggest that travelers are extending their weekend stay on either night, blending working remotely from a hotel with some leisure nights. Group demand once again reached a pandemic-era high in May, and as more large conferences and citywide events are taking place, we expect this number to climb again in June, which should benefit urban locations,” Baxter said.
Among the provinces and territories, Manitoba recorded the highest May occupancy level (69.4%), which was 2.0% above the pre-pandemic comparable.
Among the major markets, Vancouver saw the highest occupancy (76.0%), which was an 8.5% decline from 2019.
Destination Toronto’s Andrew Weir told me earlier this month that Toronto occupancy rates were above 70% for the previous two weeks.
