Hotel Industry Overview: 6/14-6/20

Hotel Weekly Update

Nationally, hotel occupancy was down 41.8% compared to 2019 this week. Atlanta was 6th out of the 25 biggest lodging markets in the US for the least occupancy rate declines (-39.4%), retaining its same spot as last week. Overall, occupancy rates appear to be improving slightly each week as leisure travel ramps up, and more hotels begin to open their doors.

Shown below, Atlanta outperformed the national average over the weekends and stayed relatively in-line with the US average during the weekdays.

Resort, small metro/town, and interstate hotels had the highest occupancy this week. Urban and airport hotels continue to have the lowest occupancy rates as many across the United States have either closed for renovations or furloughed a majority of their staff.

Source: STR

Week of June 14th Winners & Losers

Upscale, Upper Upscale, and Luxury hotels across the United States continue to have above 50% occupancy declines. Economy hotels have shaved their occupancy decline to less than 20% compared to last year this week.

The best performing hotels this week would have chain segments of economy, independent, or midscale located in a small metro/town, by an interstate, or a resort.

Top 6 Performing Cities by change in occupancy

City	2020 Occ	2019 Occ	% Change
Phoenix, AZ	48.3%	67.9%	-28.9%
Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA	54.0%	79.8%	-32.3%
Tampa/St Petersburg, FL	49.4%	76.3%	-35.3%
Detroit, MI	46.2%	73.4%	-37.0%
Houston, TX	40.6%	65.9%	-38.5%
Atlanta, GA	44.8%	74.0%	-39.4%

Worst 6 Performing Cities by change in occupancy

City	2020 Occ	2019 Occ	% Change
Oahu Island, HI	13.7%	89.6%	-84.7%
Boston, MA	26.1%	85.1%	-69.3%
Minneapolis/St Paul, MN-WI	30.2%	87.2%	-65.3%
Orlando, FL	28.2%	80.5%	-65.0%
Washington, DC-MD-VA	30.7%	84.2%	-63.5%
Seattle, WA	33.2%	88.0%	-62.3%

Source: STR

Atlanta Hotel Updates

Among the hotels that reported mass layoffs or closures to the state are Marriott hotels in Buckhead, Midtown and in the Atlanta airport area, the Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton Atlanta downtown, Hyatt, Hilton Atlanta Airport, The Hotel at Avalon, Crowne Plaza Atlanta Airport, Renaissance Atlanta Midtown, and InterContinental Buckhead. The American Hotel & Lodging Association estimated early in the pandemic that 24,200 hotel jobs would be lost in Georgia, along with more than 100,000 job losses in sectors supported by the hotel industry in the state.

In order to bring back guests, many hotels have revamped their cleanliness protocols.

• The W has installed Plexiglas dividers at the front desk and concierge, social distancing markers on the floor, and is limiting the elevator to three people unless it’s a family. Employees wear masks, and the company is checking employees’ temperatures before they enter. A period of 24 hours is allowed between booking individual rooms to allow staff to clean them under new protocols. The W Buckhead’s swimming pool remains closed to ensure social distancing safety measures.
• The Marriott chain is rolling out electrostatic sprayers to sanitize surfaces and is testing UV light technology to sanitize guest keys.
• Hilton has partnered with the maker of Lysol and Mayo Clinic for a new cleaning program and is putting a room seal on doors to indicate that the room has not been accessed since being thoroughly cleaned. It also has contactless check-in at some hotels and is expanding its use of digital key technology.

Source: AJC

Major Recurring Events Cancelled/Postponed this week:

• Moved to virtual: Atlanta Pride Run 5k
• Moved to virtual: JapanFest
• Postponed: Juneteenth Atlanta Parade & Music Festival, June 19-21 2020
• Rescheduled to September: FreakNik Festival, June 19-21 2020

Although Atlanta is an urban market that is supported by the biggest airport in the southeast, Hartsfield-Jackson, the city has been able to perform better than the rest of the United States in terms of occupancy. Some contributing come from local students from the 5 colleges located in the city getting displaced by COVID-19 as restrictions have made school time tables uncertain.

Source: STR

Week Of June 14th Hotel Report: Good And Bad News

Good News

The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee is planning to reopen June 22 after being closed for three months and expects to bring back about 65% of its staff.

Atlanta United is expected to start playing matches again mid July.

Bad News

The Hilton Atlanta Airport informed 86 employees previously on a temporary layoff status on or about May 26 that they should anticipate that their layoffs will now exceed six months.

Zoo Atlanta laid off and furloughed some employees in the spring. It applied for and received a federal Payroll Protection Program loan, which enabled full-time workers who had been furloughed or laid off to come back when the zoo reopened.

Trends of moving conferences and meetings through virtual means have slowed business travel recovery