Jefferson County hotel-occupancy rate jumps 33 percent in August

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Hotels in Jefferson County saw significantly more guests in August compared to the year-prior month, as the hospitality industry continued to recover from the pandemic, according to a recent report.

The hotel-occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county rose 32.8 percent to 69.9 percent in August, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. Year to date, hotel occupancy was up almost 43 percent to 50.5 percent.

Revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, rocketed up 53.5 percent to $89.32 in August compared to August 2020. Through the first eight months of the year, RevPar increased nearly 60 percent to $52.33 versus the same period last year.

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, increased 15.6 percent to $127.75 in August from the year-ago month. ADR was up almost 12 percent to $103.54, year to date through August.

This was the sixth-straight strong monthly hotel-occupancy report for Jefferson County. These are the first six months in which the year-over-year comparisons were to a month affected significantly by the COVID crisis. The prior 12 reports each featured double-digit declines in occupancy as the comparisons were to a pre-pandemic month.