Jefferson County hotel occupancy rate jumps nearly 67 percent in June

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Hotels in Jefferson County again saw a big surge in guests in June compared to a year ago, as the travel and leisure business continues 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 climbed 66.6 percent to 56.6 percent in June, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. 

Revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, soared 99 percent to $55.98 in the sixth month of the year compared to June 2020. 

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, rose 19.4 percent to $98.84 in June from the year-prior month.

The strong June 2021 hotel-occupancy report follows Jefferson County’s more than 114 percent jump in occupancy in May, nearly 158 percent increase in April, and 49 percent rise in March. These are the first four months in which the year-over-year comparisons are 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.