HENSERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Canada’s hotel industry has reported its highest performance since September 2022, according to STR’s May 2023 data.
In May 2023 (year-over-year percentage change), occupancy came in at 69.2 per cent (up 9.3 per cent); Average Daily Rate (ADR) came in at $197.10 (up 15 per cent) and Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) came in at $136.32 (up 25.7 per cent).
Among the provinces and territories, Newfoundland recorded the highest May occupancy level (79.9 per cent), which was up 46 per cent YOY. Among the major markets, Vancouver reported the highest occupancy (83 per cent), which was 8.5 per cent above May 2022.
Prince Edward Island (up 15. 1 per cent to 59.1 per cent) and New Brunswick (up 7.9 per cent to 59.1 per cent) matched for the lowest occupancy among provinces. At the market level, the lowest occupancy was reported in Edmonton (60.9 per cent), which was 10.2 per cent above the 2022 comparable.
“To put the country’s three per cent demand growth from 2019 into perspective, the metric was up just one per cent in the U.K. and down two per cent in the U.S. With such robust demand, room rates approached nearly $200, up 18 per cent over 2019. The growth rate compared to 2019 has been similar over the last three months, suggesting that the rate index may have plateaued. Major urban locations are still benefitting from rebounding demand and ADR growth, and in some cases, constrained supply. There is also no sign of weakness in the transient leisure segment at a national level, as the demand index hit a post-pandemic high at 113, while weekend occupancy, which can be used as a proxy for leisure demand, was also ahead of last month at 106,” says Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of Hospitality Analytics for Canada. CoStar Group is the parent company of STR. “STR and Tourism Economics launched an updated forecast in June and the new version remains similar to the last, projecting full-year occupancy to return to 2019 levels this year. What has changed is that inflation-adjusted ADR and RevPAR are also expected to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2023, which is earlier than anticipated in the previous version.”
