HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — The Canadian hotel industry recorded steep year-over-year declines across the three key performance metrics during the week of March 29 to April 4, 2020, according to data from STR.
In a year-over-year comparison, the industry reported a 79-per-cent drop in occupancy to 12.8 per cent, a 30.5-per-cent decrease in Average Daily Rate (ADR) to $105.19 and an 85.4-per-cent decrease in Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) to $13.42. This data reflects further declines from the week ending March 28, 2020, which saw occupancy of 14.8 per cent, ADR at $109.66 and RevPAR of $16.23.
Quebec continues to report the steepest declines in occupancy and RevPAR, which fell 89.8 per cent to 6.1 per cent and 92.5 per cent to $6.87 for the week, respectively. Ontario experienced the largest drop in ADR, which fell 34.8 per cent to $105.14.
Occupancy for all major Canadian markets was below 18 per cent for the week and each saw RevPAR declines of 85 per cent or more. Montreal experienced the most significant decline in both RevPAR and occupancy, which fell 92.9 per cent to $7.81 and 90 per cent to 6.7 per cent, respectively. Vancouver saw the steepest drop in ADR — a 34.5-per-cent decrease to $119.12.
Looking at performance by hotel tier, luxury and upper-upscale hotels continued to be the hardest hit, experiencing further declines. RevPAR for the week fell 96.9 per cent within Canada’s luxury class hotels and 94.1 per cent for the upper-upscale market. Occupancy for these segments was also very dismal at 2.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively.
By comparison, midscale hotels — the best performing class in the set — saw RevPAR decline 73.1 per cent for the week and occupancy of 17 per cent. “The Canadian economy is taking a stark hit, not just the hotel industry,” Jan Freitag, STR’s SVP of Lodging Insights, noted in a webinar discussing the week’s results. Sharing Statistics Canada data indicating that more than one million jobs were lost in March, he added, “Obviously that has huge implications for the recovery, because somebody who doesn’t have a job, they will prioritize their leisure spend — if they have any leisure spend — very differently.”
