N E W M AR K V AL UAT I O N & A DV I S O R Y
National Lodging Market Analysis The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to the hospitality industry, wiping out a decade’s worth of revenue and job growth. The systolic nature of hotel demand relaxed for a short period with the emergence of the Delta variant in mid-2021, which became most noticeable during the months of July and August with its recovery gap versus 2019 widening. Demand resumed pace two months later, only to be occluded by the Omicron variant. With cases and deaths back on a sharp rise, the recovery curve stalled once again. This time, without the stouthearted leisure segments leading the way, demand plummeted. According to Kalibri Labs and the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the hotel industry lost approximately $110 billion in business travel revenue—corporate, group, government, and other commercial categories— from the onset of the virus through the end of 2021. Business and group travel are the industry’s largest source of revenue and are not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2024. According to PwC, the U.S. lodging industry benefitted from atypically imbalanced growth in leisure demand through the summer months. As students returned to school in late August and early September, individual business travel and group demand that historically replaces summer leisure business post Labor Day remained dormant. In addition, many employee office re-openings were pushed later into 2021 or early 2022 due to the virus’ Delta and Omicron variants.
NATIONAL LODGING HIGHLIGHTS The following table illustrates historical performance trends from 2015 to current for the aggregate of the Top104 markets in the United States. Top 104 Hotel Markets Aggregate Performance
Source: Kalibri Labs
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