HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Canada’s hotel industry reported a third-consecutive month of occupancy declines but continued growth in Average Daily Rate (ADR), according to CoStar’s February 2024 data. Group ADR growth (up 7.9 per cent) was the strongest among the segments.
February 2024 (percentage change from 2023):
- Occupancy: 58 per cent (down 1.6 per cent)
- ADR: $181.55 (up 3.8 per cent)
- Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR): $105.37 (up 2.2 per cent)
Among the provinces and territories, Manitoba recorded the highest February 2024 occupancy level (69.8 per cent), which was 0.5-per-cent below 2023.
Among the major markets, Vancouver saw the highest occupancy (73.5 per cent), down 1.4 per cent over February 2023.
The lowest occupancy among provinces was reported in P.E.I. (38.6 per cent), down 38.1 per cent against 2023. The decline was due to comparison to the province’s Canada Winter Games host period last year.
At the market level, the lowest occupancy was reported in Edmonton (up 4.6 per cent to 53.3 per cent).
“Both transient and group occupancy declined, down 2.4 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively, contributing to the third-consecutive decline in Canada’s monthly hotel occupancy. A greater decline in the metric occurred over the weekends as opposed to weekdays, suggesting that leisure travellers continue to reel in discretionary spending. Meanwhile, weekday occupancy was only marginally below last February, indicating that business travel is not pulling back to the same degree,” says Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of Hospitality Analytics for Canada. “Room-rate growth, while slightly lower than January, continues to outpace inflation, but the gap between the two measures has narrowed. While group occupancy was down, group rates grew at a healthy pace year-over-year. The segment is becoming more lucrative and prevalent as group demand continues its recovery to pre-pandemic levels. Supply pressure continues to be minimal for most markets. New openings across Canada in 2024 are expected to be down roughly 30 per cent compared to the 10-year average.”
