HALF OF U.S. HOTEL ROOMS WILL REMAIN EMPTY IN 2021

Although 56 percent of Americans expect to travel for pleasure this year, according to a January survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), hotel occupancy will remain at or below 50 percent through 2021, the association predicted.
Business travel, the source of profit for most hotels, remains 85 percent lower than before the pandemic but will begin to return in April and gradually increase during the second half of this year, the AHLA reported in its “State of the Hotel Industry 2021,” released 21 January.
Business travel will not return to pre-pandemic levels “at least until 2023 or 2024,” the AHLA said in a statement accompanying the report.
Pleasure travel will return earliest, with more than half of individuals surveyed planning leisure travel this year. About 48 percent of people surveyed linked their plans for pleasure travel with the availability of COVID vaccines, the AHLA found.
The industry expects to restore 200,000 jobs this year, but jobs in lodging will remain about 500,000 fewer than before the pandemic when the industry employed 2.3 million people. The industry’s unemployment rate will be 18.9 percent in 2021, the AHLA says.
“COVID-19 has wiped out ten years of hotel job growth,” Chip Rogers, AHLA’s CEO, said in the statement.