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U.S. & Canada: So Close, Yet Their Hotel Occupancy Rates Are So Far Apart

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Although year-over-year numbers are still horrific, hotels in the U.S. & Canada are slowly seeing more week-to-week occupancy, according to an industry marketplace insight provider.

United States

For the week of  May 10th through May 16th, the occupancy rate in U.S. hotels was 32.4%. In previous weeks, occupancy levels have been:

This shows that as states’ lockdowns, quarantines, and stay-at-home orders are eased, people are indeed going out and staying in hotels again, at a rate of a rough increase of 1.5 to 2.5% more per week. However it’s still the vast minority of travelers, as evidenced by year-over-year comparisons. i.e., in comparison to the week of May 10-16, 2019, occupancy rates were down 54.1%

Canada

Although some provinces are beginning to ease COVID precautions, Canada as a whole has taken a much more conservative stance than the U.S. when it comes to stay-at-home orders and reopening. This is evidenced by the lower percentage of citizens who have been stricken by or died from coronavirus (as of this writing: Canada 2019 population 37.59M, 81,461 cases, 6,152 deceased, vs. U.S. 2019 population 328.2M, 1,608,084 cases, 95,087 deceased), but also shows in the number of hotel rooms being filled in the country, as well.

For the week of May 10-16, Canada’s average occupancy rate was 18.4% (a decrease of 72.5% in comparison to May 12-18, 2019). However, that’s still better than previous weeks:

It’s still (usually) an increase of 1.5 to 2.5%, but consistently at a generally 20-25% lower ratio.

So you have one country with a leader who is itching to open everything ASAP, and another country with a leader who’s being slow, deliberate and careful. The hotel occupancy rate reflects that almost perfectly.

It’s an interesting trend to watch and I look forward to seeing the numbers that are released after Memorial Day Weekend. After all, it’s a huge “kick-off to summer” holiday in the U.S. and in Canada it’s…just any other weekend ;-). So we’ll see how the numbers move.

#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

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