US Lodging Market Update: August 2021

By Hua Rong on September 23, 2021

MR US Lodging Market Aug 2021

The US lodging industry’s performance in August saw a break in the seven-month weekly room night growth trend, primarily due to the start of school and a ramp-up in delta-related Covid cases.

While July demand had reached 107% of 2019 average weekly demand, August was at 98%. Still, Average Daily Rate (ADR) showed some signs of improvement where the Transient and Group segments saw a 12.2% and 4.2% respective increase over August 2019 levels. The combined segments make up 95% of the US Lodging demand segmentation, while Contract comprised only 5% but saw a 17.7% decline over August 2019.

It is worth noting that exemplary performance of the leisure-fueled months of June and July were expected as they were fed mainly through domestic vacationers. In contrast, once the fall semester begins and ordinary life resumes, the US hotels rely more on Corporate and Group related to demand, which are slow to return to their pre-pandemic levels.

Overall, sentiment is still strong across the lodging industry as performance during the second quarter and the month of July exceeded expectations.

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About the author

Hua Rong hrong@horwathhtl.com