Canadian Hotel Industry Experiences Unprecedented Occupancy Drop After Nine-Month High :: Hospitality Trends

September 2024 marked the first month-over-month decline in occupancy for Canadian hotels since January of the same year. Despite the decline, specific segments and locations, such as luxury hotels and Nova Scotia, showed strong performance.

According to data from CoStar, a leading online real estate marketplace, and analytics provider, the Canadian hotel industry experienced its first month-over-month occupancy decline in September 2024 since January of the same year. The overall occupancy rate was 74.0%, a decrease of 1.8% from 2023.

Despite this dip in occupancy, the average daily rate (ADR) increased by 2.6% to CAD227.99, and the revenue per available room (RevPAR) also saw a slight rise of 0.8% to CAD168.69. Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of hospitality analytics for Canada, attributed the decline to reduced group and transient demand.

Luxury hotels continued to record higher occupancy growth, while lower-end hotels contributed to the decline. This indicates that individuals with disposable income continue to spend on discretionary items.

Regarding provinces and territories, Nova Scotia recorded the highest occupancy level at 82.4%, up by 1.7% from 2023. Conversely, Saskatchewan reported the lowest occupancy among provinces at 62.4%, a 2.0% decrease from 2023.

The impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Canada was also prominent, with high hotel occupancy rates predicted for November and December in cities like Toronto and Vancouver.