Onondaga County hotel occupancy leaps almost 40 percent in October

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County hotels generated a big increase in guests in October compared to the same month in 2020 as the lodging industry continued to bounce back from the pandemic, per a recent report.

The hotel-occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county jumped 39.5 percent to 58.6 percent in October from the year-ago month, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. It was the eighth straight month of substantial gains in occupancy, each greater than 38 percent. These are the first eight 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 102.6 percent) to $69.63 in Onondaga County this October from a year earlier.

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, rose 45.2 percent to $118.74 in October compared to October 2020.