Onondaga County hotel occupancy rate tumbles more than 40 percent in March on COVID-19 impact

SYRACUSE — Onondaga County hotels saw a substantial decline in guests in March, as the coronavirus shutdown took effect, starting mid-month.

The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county plunged nearly 41 percent to 31 percent in March, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. The county’s occupancy had risen more than 3 percent in February and almost 8 percent in January, before the COVID-19 crisis hit here.

Revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, fell over 47 percent to $26.53 in March.