Jefferson County hotel occupancy rate skyrockets in April

WATERTOWN — Hotels in Jefferson County posted another huge increase in guests in April compared to a year ago, as the hospitality industry recovers from the pandemic’s disruptions to travel and business, according to a recent report.

The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county soared 157.8 percent to 43.3 percent in April, 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, tripled (up 200.7 percent) to $36.50 in the fourth month of the year compared to April 2020. 

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, rose 16.6 percent to $84.23 in April from the year-prior month.

The strong April 2021 hotel-occupancy report follows the March result when occupancy in Jefferson County rose nearly 50 percent from a year earlier. These are the first two 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.