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An American Hotel and Lodging Association report on the state of the hotel industry six months into the pandemic isn’t exactly treatise on optimism.
Instead, the data, for the most part, is a punch to the gut. It includes the following bullet points:
• Four out of 10 hotel employees are not working;
• Nearly two-thirds, 65%, of hotels remain at or below 50% occupancy, below the threshold at which most hotels can break even and pay debt;
• Consumer travel remains at an all-time low, with 33% of Americans reporting they’ve traveled overnight for leisure or vacation since March, while 38% say they are likely to travel by the end of the year;
• Urban hotels are suffering the most, with occupancies of 38% — significantly below the national average.
On a local basis, the report offers a glimmer of hope: the Tampa-St. Pete market is No. 5 on the list of major hotel markets least negatively impacted by COVID-19. The market’s hotel occupancy, on average, was 49% the week of Aug. 9-15, the report shows. That’s down from 68% the same week in 2019. By comparison, Orlando, the No. 2 major market most negatively impacted by COVID-19, had a year-over-year drop of 75% to 29% the week of Aug. 9-15.
While not optimistic about the national short-term prospects, AHLA President and CEO Chip Rogers is calling on federal politicians to help. The lobbying group is asking for a targeted extension of the Paycheck Protection Program and a commercial mortgage backed securities market relief fund, among other requests.
“While hotels have seen an uptick in demand during the summer compared to where we were in April, occupancy rates are nowhere near where they were a year ago,” Rogers says in the statement. “We are incredibly worried about the fall and what the drop in demand will mean for the industry and the millions of employees we have been unable to bring back. We need urgent, bipartisan action from Congress now.”
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