Mews reports robust 2024 summer hospitality performance and anticipates higher holiday occupancy and rates in North America, signaling a boom in travel despite some regional rate reductions.
Mews released the Mews Data Snap, a real-time measure of hospitality’s performance during the summer of 2024. Alongside the report, the company also looked ahead at upcoming holiday bookings, noting that occupancy rates for Thanksgiving and Christmas travel in North America are already near double from this time last year, implying that customers are planning earlier and booking with confidence. In addition, average daily rates over holiday weekend bookings for this season are trending higher than 2023 rates based on early bookings data taken from October 28.
“What we can extrapolate from both the summer numbers as well as the trends we’re seeing for this season’s holiday travel, is that travel is booming,” says Mews Founder Richard Valtr. “We’re also seeing a bit of a reprieve for guests, as hotel rates have dropped from last year in many states in North America. The good news for hoteliers is that even with this average daily rate reduction, hospitality revenue remains strong, particularly for those properties that leverage and monetize non-room revenue, like selling spaces to day guests and visitors, and upsell services during online check-in to make the guest’s experience more unique.”
For the North American market in particular, key findings from the Mews Summer data snap include:
- Travel is on the up and up. Average occupancy was up 8 percent from summer of 2023. At 61 percent occupancy, that’s a big improvement for travel across North America. August was the best performing month, but June saw the most improvement over last year, with a 19 percent increase from 2023.
- Consumers got a bit of a price break this summer in many cities and markets. RevPAR is up, but ADR is down. North America’s RevPAR has seen positive movement, with an increase of 7% – or $10 – to $157. June again showed the most improvement, with RevPAR growing by 12% from 2023 (on average $16 a room night).
- Average daily rates in North America in Mews’ data set, however, were down from 2023 rates in most cities including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco, with rates staying largely the same in Chicago and Nashville.
- Average daily rates dropped in many international markets as well, including London, Berlin, and Barcelona. One city that saw big ADR increases from 2023 to 2024? Paris, thanks to the summer Olympics.
- Non-room revenue is exploding, with more hotels than ever taking advantage of selling additional bookable spaces to day guests and visitors (such as parking lots and meeting rooms). A quarter of hotels now diversify their revenue in this way, up from 19 percent last year, with average revenue generated per space increasing 29 percent from last year.
- Travelers continue to embrace the convenience and instant gratification of online check-in and upgrades. The number of guests utilizing online check-in remained relatively the same YOY (about 20%), and many guests upgraded their reservations via online check-in – however, they spent an average of $3 less than they did in 2023, with an average upsell of $46. Top upgrades included early check-in, pet fees, late check-out, breakfast, and romance packages.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
