When will the business traveler return? Hotel industry counting on a return to the office

The retail market faced challenges before COVID-19 hit. The office market was solid before the pandemic sent employees working from home in droves. But the hospitality market? It was thriving in many parts of the country before March of 2020.

But when COVID hit? This sector took an immediate nosedive. Business travel disappeared in March and April of last year. And leisure travel was all but nonexistent, too.

Consider these numbers from researcher STR: In March of 2020, the U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell 42.3 percent from the same month one year earlier, plummeting to 39.4 percent. The average daily rate fell 16.5 percent when compared to a year earlier, dipping to $110.66. And revenue per available room — better known as RevPAR, dropped 51.9 percent from March of 2019, falling to $43.54 during the same month last year.

Things got even worse for hotels one month later. STR said that the occupancy rate for U.S. hotels fell to 24.5 percent in April of 2020, a dip of 63.9 percent from the same month in 2019. The average daily rate fell to $73.23, while RevPAR dropped to $17.93.

But what about today? The industry, maybe thanks to the optimism generated by the country's vaccine rollout, is slowly recovering. STR reported that as of the week ending April 3 of this year, the U.S. hotel occupancy rate was 57.9 percent. The average daily rate had climbed back to $112.76, while RevPAR stood at $65.33.