Jefferson County hotel-occupancy rate rises nearly 48 percent in July

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Hotels in Jefferson County were substantially fuller in July compared to a year ago, as the hospitality industry 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 jumped 47.6 percent to 68.8 percent in July, 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 77.1 percent to $84.10 in the seventh month of the year compared to July 2020. 

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, climbed an even 20 percent to $122.23 in July from the year-prior month.

The robust July 2021 hotel-occupancy report follows Jefferson County’s nearly 67 percent jump in occupancy in June, triple-digit percentage gains in both May and April, and more than 49 percent rise in March. These are the first five 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.