- December 17, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
The hotel sector is likely facing a “protracted recovery,” with experts from Moody’s Analytics predicting certain segments of business travel may never fully return to pre-pandemic levels.
Permanent declines are expected within the range of 10 and 30%, Moody’s analysts note in a recent report on the future of the sector, as would-be business travelers increasingly substitute technology for in-person meetings.
While hotel fundamentals mirrored recovering travel metrics, with RevPAR up 87% in Q3 and occupancy up 33% nationally, “the hotel sector has experienced a tremendous period of instability since travel restrictions practically eliminated both leisure and business travel,” the report notes.
The summer months were a boon for the sector, with occupancy rising above 60% and staying at that level for the first time since February 2020. Occupancy peaked in July at 67.3% and slumped to 60.8% in August as the delta variant began…
