Travel & Data Trends

Hoteliers have a language problem, but it’s not what you think. It’s not the ability to speak to people from other countries. It’s the way they sell their products – their rooms. Given the amount of competition in the hotel industry, you would think that product differentiation would be a priority. But go to almost any hotel website and you will find the exact same products. The Standard Room. The Superior Room. The Junior Suite.

When Disneyland Resort, Anaheim’s crown jewel, was forced to close in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, area hotels faced some of the greatest demand losses in the nation. The park system welcomed back its local fanbase in 2021 with the introduction of a new reservation system. Once Disney attendees were more familiar with the park’s new reservation system, which requires advance planning and makes it more difficult to book same-day tickets, leisure demand rebounded, spurring double-digit ADR growth in 2021 and 2022.

Despite projections of persistent inflation and a moderate economic recession, CBRE’s November 2022 Hotel Horizons® forecast calls for a 5.8% increase in rooms revenue per available room (RevPAR) in 2023. This is up from CBRE’s previous forecast of a 5.6% increase in RevPAR for 2023.

The popularity of surfing has grown significantly in recent years, especially in the United States. According to a study published by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), the number of surfers has increased by more than 35% in less than a decade. The survey also found that surfers live all across the country, even in landlocked states far from the coasts.

The strong recovery in 2022 brought much relief to a sector devastated by COVID-19. The quick retraction of onerous COVID-19 policies, released the much pent-up demand in the market, making it the single biggest reason for a strong recovery. While occupancy remained slightly 5-7 percentage points (pp) lower than the full year 2019, in large part due to the much lower-than-expected Q1 2022, ARRs for 2022 recovered fully, crossing 2019 levels by almost 1-3%, in large part due to strong ARRs in Q4 2022. Similar to 2021, domestic travel was responsible for the strong recovery in demand. Buoyed by segments such as weddings and events, the hospitality sector continued its unabated growth in ARRs to recover in part the losses of the previous two years. Corporate travel recovered as well, contributing to the overall recovery of the sector.

We have all been there. You are scrolling through rates for a hotel room, find one that looks great, and then you see the dreaded words “additional fees may apply.” Suddenly, that great rate doesn’t seem so great anymore. As a consumer, it can be frustrating to see those additional fees. Often, we don’t even know what they are for. What is a kitchen fee? What does the service fee cover? How much are they going to be?

There are plenty of opinion pieces available every December that describe the next year’s industry trends in everything from hotel design to market segment performance, the year’s ”hot” travel destinations and which new wellness therapies will be in strongest demand. Last year, however, soon after the travel magazines featured the best hotels of the year in their summer issues, early looks at trends for 2023 began to appear. These early articles were a hint that travelers’ preferences and behaviors were changing too quickly to be captured by the annual trend snapshots of the past.

On January 25, 2023, the Seattle Convention Center (SCC) is debuting the completion of its expansion, known as Summit. The building, which has been under construction since 2018, nearly doubles the capacity of the convention center facilities. The existing building, Arch, features 432,988 total square feet, while Summit features 573,770 square feet, including a 14,000-square-foot Garden Terrace.

Stadium entertainment districts have been gaining in popularity since their inception in the early 2000’s. They can generate revenue for teams, enhance the event experience for the attendee, and generate increased tax revenue for cities. However, does the existence and creation of districts encourage the development of entertainment amenities around arenas and stadiums, and does it encourage the usage of these amenities before and after events? HVS tested these hypotheses using data from ESRI, Placer.ai, and the University of Michigan.

It’s been a couple of challenging years for the hotel industry, but it seems as if the sun has finally broken on the horizon.