Onondaga County hotel occupancy rate more than doubles in May as recovery from pandemic lows continues

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Hotels in Onondaga County saw another massive surge in guests this May compared to May 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the hospitality business, according to a recent report.

The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county jumped 124.4 percent to 50.9 percent in May compared to under 23 percent in the year-earlier period, 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, more than tripled (up 241.5 percent) to $53.90 this May from a year prior.

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, jumped 52.2 percent to $105.97 in May compared to May 2020.

The strong May 2021 hotel-occupancy report follows the April and March results when occupancy soared more than 152 percent and 40 percent, respectively, from the year-earlier periods. These are the first three months in which the year-over-year comparisons were to a month affected significantly by the COVID crisis. The prior year of monthly reports featured significant declines in occupancy as the comparisons were to a pre-pandemic month.