US hotels running 80% empty

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the US hospitality sector hard. About 80% of rooms in the US are empty, according to a new study.

Hotel occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room were down significantly year-over-year for the week of March 29 through April 4, per a new report from STR, a firm that analyses hospitality industry data.

Compared with the week of March 31 to April 6 last year, hotel occupancy was down nearly 70%, with only 21.6% rooms filled.

“Data worsened a bit from last week, and certain patterns were extended around occupancy,” Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights, said in a statement.

That’s not to say it was all gloom and doom: Guests are still showing interest in budget hotels.

“Economy hotels continued to run the highest occupancy, while interstate and suburban properties once again posted the top occupancy rates among location types,” Freitag added. “This shows there are still pockets of demand.”

In the top 25 markets in the US, Oahu and Hawaii saw the biggest occupancy decrease, down nearly 91% with an occupancy level of 7%. New York City occupancy fell more than 79% to about 18%, while Seattle dipped about 73% to 19.5%.