The holiday season is in full swing in the US and after two years of lockdowns and uncertainty, many Americans resumed their ‘normal’ holiday travel and booked a flight or packed up the car to spend the holiday with their friends and families. Many airlines logged their busiest days since 2019 and early 2020 over Thanksgiving. The Transportation Security Administration reported that from Nov 22 through 28, 14.4 million people passed through TSA, more than double the 6.4 million a year ago.
This is welcomed news for the hotel industry as hoteliers also benefited from the return of holiday travel. Using insights from The MAPP Report, we’ve highlighted a few trends observed over the holiday period.
As we approached the holiday, US hotel occupancy came in around double what we saw in 2020, clocking in at just over 50%, compared to around 25% in 2020. In addition to the climb in occupancy, rates were up nearly 35% and holding steady or slightly climbing throughout the week, as opposed to dropping in an attempt to fill rooms.
We finished out the holiday weekend at just shy of 60% due to some last minute pickup. Occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR are all up YOY from 2020. We hope the influx of travel continues over the remainder of the holiday season and winter breaks.
