Oneida County hotel occupancy jumps 24 percent in September

UTICA, N.Y. — Oneida County’s hotels generated another rebound in guests in September compared to a year prior as the recovery from the pandemic’s punishing impact on the hospitality business rolls on.

The county’s hotel-occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) rose 24 percent to 63.2 percent in September, versus the year-ago month. That’s according to a recent report from STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. Year to date, occupancy was up 34 percent to 55.5 percent.

Revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, soared 51.9 percent to $81.50 in this year’s ninth month, compared to September 2020. RevPar was nearly 49 percent higher year to date to $64.42.

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, increased 22.5 percent to $128.91 in Oneida County this September. Through the first nine months of this year, ADR was up almost 11 percent to $116.10.

The positive September 2021 hotel-occupancy report represents the seventh consecutive month of significant increases in occupancy in the Mohawk Valley’s most-populated county, compared to the year-earlier month — however, this was the smallest rise of the seven. These are the first seven months in which the year-over-year comparisons were to a month affected significantly by the COVID emergency. The last year of monthly reports before that showed substantial declines in occupancy as the comparisons were to a pre-pandemic month.