Canada’s hotel industry reported slightly higher performance when compared with recent months, according to STR‘s February 2021 data.
The country’s occupancy level was its highest since November 2020, while ADR and RevPAR were the highest since October 2020. Year-over-year declines remained significant but will improve in future months due to comparisons with pandemic-affected months last year.
- Occupancy: 27.3% (-53.0%)
- Average daily rate (ADR): CAD112.90 (-25.2%)
- Revenue per available room (RevPAR): CAD30.86 (-64.8%)
“Canada hotel performance remained subdued through the first two months this year, as group demand was almost non-existent while some essential corporate and leisure travel continued to generate minimal transient hotel demand,” said Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of hospitality analytics for Canada. CoStar Group is the parent company of STR.
“More recently, the full impact of the restrictions on inbound air travel remains to be seen, but weekly hotel performance data shows occupancy rising significantly in the airport submarkets in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The Vancouver airport submarket saw occupancy above 55% over the last two weeks—marking the first time the metric has exceeded 50% in the submarket since late March 2020.”
“Looking ahead, we expect RevPAR comparisons to push out of the red in April, ending the year with growth around 20%. The forecasted growth is solely driven by improvements to occupancy, while ADR is expected to experience a slight contraction compared to last year. The current forecast is based upon the assumption that gradual progress will be made toward containment of the virus in Q3. The forecast for Q3 includes pent-up leisure demand returning over the summer months and some corporate and international travel in Q4. Group travel is expected to return gradually, albeit severely depressed for the rest of the year.”
Among the provinces and territories, Newfoundland and Labrador recorded the lowest February occupancy level (14.3%), which was down 64.4% in year-over-year comparisons. The province also experienced the lowest RevPAR level (-72.0% to CAD13.29).
Among the major markets, Montreal (16.1%) saw the lowest occupancy level, down 74.1% year over year.
The highest occupancy among provinces was reported in British Columbia (-45.7% to 34.7%). At the market level, the highest occupancy was reported in Vancouver (-54.4% to 33.3%).
