Leisure, sports travel fuel hotel occupancy uptick after pandemic decline

Hospitality executives see beneficial indications of leisure travel exercise escalating across West Michigan, nevertheless company vacation nevertheless lags pre-pandemic amounts.

“For leisure vacation, there is a ton of pent-up demand and we have been enduring that,” explained Peter Beukema, founder of 6PM Hospitality Companions LLC who previously served as CEO of Suburban Inns. “Last summer months, journey was genuinely off the charts, and staffing degrees made it seriously difficult, but it was excellent. This winter season and tumble were superior than expected, but surely not where it was (pre-pandemic).”

Resort occupancy throughout the place is anticipated to proceed trending upward and is forecasted to ordinary 63.4 % this year — nearing the 66 p.c occupancy charge in 2019, according to details from STR Inc. and Oxford Economics. The typical countrywide occupancy price was 44 p.c in 2020 and 57.6 percent  in 2021.

Space profits decreased by virtually 50 per cent in 2020 but is expected to nearly return to 2019 amounts in 2022, nevertheless non-home paying out on assembly rentals, gatherings and food stuff purchases is predicted to lag, in accordance to an American Lodge & Lodging Affiliation 2022 Condition of the Hotel Business report.

Hospitality leaders in Grand Rapids, Holland and Kalamazoo anticipate to see journey traits from past yr continue on in 2022. Though organization vacation proceeds to lag, pent-up demand has designed leisure travelers the main driver of lodge occupancy charges. 

“The lacking piece is company travel,” claimed Encounter Grand Rapids Govt Director Doug Modest. “That is lacking and has been actually slow to appear again. I’m not confident it will at any time completely arrive back.”

Some firms tailored to subject operate by way of web conferencing for the duration of the pandemic, which cuts down on charges, Small stated. Group travel for company is expected to return quicker mainly because of the issue of holding hybrid conferences, while leisure vacation has had the strongest demonstrating amongst varieties of vacation more than the past 12 months, Little mentioned. 

“Weekend travel has been every single little bit as good as it was in 2019,” Tiny stated. “Weekends have been genuinely stable since the summertime of 2021 all the way by way of now. Which is individuals with pent-up need saying, ‘I need to have to get out.’”

When weekend travel picked up at the back half of 2021, occupancy prices for Kent County hotel rooms ranged from about 72 to 90 p.c. 

Like in a lot of other industries, hospitality carries on to grapple with selecting and retaining staff members.

“Destination advertising and marketing companies like ourselves have never had to get concerned in workforce advancement before, but now we’re centered on that for inns and eating places to check out to appeal to and create a bigger pool of expertise for our stakeholders,” Small reported. “Hotels are staggering making an attempt to retain up. They’re heading to have to master how to perform with leaner groups.”

In an Oct 2021 American Lodge & Lodging Association member survey, 94 p.c of respondents said their motels ended up understaffed, while 47 p.c stated they have been seriously understaffed.

The normal occupancy amount for lodge rooms throughout Kent County was at 46 % during the first two months of 2022, an enhance from 31.7 % through the similar period in 2021 even though however below the 57.7-percent level in 2019.

“I’m cautiously optimistic we can be back again to pre-pandemic numbers upcoming year in 2023, and we are observing indicators that projection will transpire,” Tiny claimed. “As a lot as we’re excited about our advancement, we have still obtained work to do.”

Travel in the Holland spot need to choose up this summer time with the entire return of the Tulip Time Festival just after it was noticeably scaled back in 2021. The resort evaluation district in the area contains the town of Holland and Holland, Park and Zeeland townships. Occupancy costs were being just below the nationwide normal previous yr at 55.7 per cent and mainly consisted of leisure vacation, mentioned Linda Hart, executive director of the Holland Region Convention and Guests Bureau. 

“Corporate travel has lagged and we realized that was coming, but we are viewing an uptick in outside sports activities tournaments like softball, which has usually been very well known in our local community,” Hart said. “We’re hoping to deliver in Zig Zag Ultimate Frisbee tournaments to Holland, which would be a excellent chance for us.”

The CityFlatsHotel in Holland, which is managed by 6PM Hospitality, had report months for occupancy in January and February of 2021, Beukema stated. He credits the effective months to the hotel’s rebranding as a Tapestry Selection by Hilton.

“Every solitary month in 2021 we were being under our 2019 occupancy concentrations besides for December when we were being better than 2019 concentrations,” Hart claimed. “We chalk that up to a extremely detailed digital marketing campaign we switched to once the pandemic hit. We had a fantastic fourth quarter.”

Explore Kalamazoo President and CEO Jane Ghosh echoed Smaller and Hart about a productive vacation season towards the finish of 2021. 

“The hotel space night time need for the complete calendar year (of 2021) was up 59 per cent from 2020 in Kalamazoo,” Ghosh stated. “That’s the very best of all the markets in Michigan that we glimpse at. We experience extremely good about our recovery.”

The amount of Kalamazoo County resort rooms also improved by 7-per cent from 2020 to 2021 as three new hotels opened in the area, Ghosh mentioned. 

“For us, sporting events have led the way. We’re hosting all sorts of sporting occasions and we have groups below all the time with people and venues performing it properly,” Ghosh mentioned. “There is also pent-up need — folks are just anxious to get out and Kalamazoo is a wonderful marketplace for that for the reason that we’re a more compact city with tons to do.”