Onondaga County hotel occupancy jumps more than 52 percent in August

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County hotels generated another big increase in business in August compared to a year prior as the hospitality industry continued to bounce back from the pandemic, according to a recent report.

The hotel-occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county rose 52.2 percent to 70.9 percent in August from the year-ago month, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. It was the sixth straight month of large increases in occupancy, each surpassing 40 percent. These are the first six months in which the year-over-year comparisons were to a month affected negatively by the COVID crisis. The last year of monthly reports before that showed significant declines in occupancy as the comparisons were to a pre-pandemic month.

Revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, more than doubled (up 101.6 percent) to $82.44 in Onondaga County this August from a year earlier.

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, increased 32.5 percent to $116.35 in August compared to August 2020.