Canadian hotel performance continues to improve

Canada’s hotel performance for November 2022 was slightly lower than October 2022, but still showed improvement when compared to 2019, according to STR’s most recent data.

The data shows that in November 2022, occupancy was up by 1.6 per cent, average daily rate was up by almost 15 per cent, and revenue per available room was up by 16.6 per cent compared to November 2019.

"Top-line performance recovery showed astounding strength in November, reinforcing that travel is still a priority despite high inflation and a dimming economic outlook," said Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of hospitality analytics for Canada. CoStar Group is the parent company of STR. “When indexed to 2019, the key performance metrics aligned with the previous recovery peak in July. The improvement over recent months was partially due to a higher occupancy index, which was 1.6 per cent above the 2019 pre-pandemic comparable. New recovery milestones were realized in both weekday and weekend occupancy, signaling strength in both corporate and leisure travel. The weekday occupancy index, which can be used as a proxy for corporate travel demand recovery, was in line with 2019 for the first time of the pandemic era. The weekend occupancy index, used as a proxy for leisure travel recovery, pushed ahead to 107 per cent of the 2019 level. Transient occupancy also reached an all-time recovery high, up 10 per cent over November 2019, while the group index was slightly softer than last month, down 13 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels.”

Across the country, Manitoba recorded the highest November occupancy level (76.6 per cent) which was above the pre-pandemic comparable by more than 16 per cent. To counter, Alberta saw the lowest occupancy, but was still up 3.2 per cent when compared to 2019 data.

“Overall, we expect a strong finish to the year with December events such as the two-week UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal set to positively impact demand and ADR. Holiday parties are also back in force, which will improve F&B revenue,” Baxter said.