In December, Onondaga County hotel occupancy fell more than 30 percent

SYRACUSE — Just over one-fourth of hotel rooms in Onondaga County, on average, were occupied by guests in December, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to stifle the travel and the hospitality industry.

The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county was 27.2 percent in December, down 32.4 percent from the year-prior month. It was the 10th consecutive month in which occupancy fell by more than 30 percent year over year, according to data from STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. For all of 2020, hotel occupancy in the county was off 38.2 percent to 35 percent. 

Onondaga County’s revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, came in at $19.38 in December, down 46.6 percent from December 2019 levels. RevPar plummeted 50.6 percent for the full year to $28.94.

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, was measured at $71.30 in December, down 20.9 percent from a year earlier. ADR fell 20 percent to $82.58 for the full 12-month period.