Remote Work, Growing Retiree Population Drive Hotel Demand
More People Have the Means, Flexibility to Travel in 2023
Three trends give U.S. hoteliers confidence that demand for hotel rooms will continue to grow this year: remote work, rising wages and a larger population of retirees.
Speaking on a "Boardroom Outlook" panel at the 2023 Americas Lodging Investment summit, Pat Pacious, president and CEO of Choice Hotels International, said these are long-term fundamentals that bode well for leisure travel.
“If you look at remote work, it’s really sort of lifted that constraint of time where the workweek is now maybe three days a week and the other two days of the week people have the flexibility to work from anywhere,” he said. “In our business, we’re seeing more Thursday night check-in for weekends and Monday morning check-out.”
Wages are “more sticky” than other aspects of inflation, Pacious said. And with the middle class benefiting from rising wages, Pacious added those individuals are using that extra income on leisure travel.
Additionally, the labor force participation rate is significantly below where it was pre-pandemic, he said.
“With all the retirements that you’re seeing … a lot more people have freedom to travel because they’re not in the workforce,” he said.
Jim Merkel, co-founder and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based private investment firm Rockbridge Capital, said to be in the hospitality industry, you’ve got to be optimistic.
