Following Labor Day in the U.S., all eyes are on corporate, midweek demand. According to the latest monthly data from STR, CoStar's hospitality analytics firm, U.S. occupancy stood at 63% in August, a six-point drop from the previous month. However, this decline was expected due to leisure vacations ending and children returning to school.

"This softening then meant that the [revenue per available room] index compared to 2019 once again fell below 100," Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics for CoStar Group, said in his monthly video analysis of U.S. hotel performance.

"Weekend occupancies have benefited from healthy leisure demand, but now that we are after Labor Day, all eyes are on midweek, corporate demand," he added.

The delta variant continues to throw a wrench in return-to-office plans for businesses, as companies like Amazon and Google are keeping employees at home until next year.

Freitag expects weekend occupancy and rate will continue to be strong, but midweek performance will look vastly different. Without healthy group demand, it's difficult to envision a recovery across the board.

Read the full article at STR