Two-thirds of Onondaga County hotel rooms were unoccupied in November

SYRACUSE — Just one in three hotel rooms in Onondaga County, on average, were occupied by guests in November, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to restrain travel and the hospitality industry.

The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county was 33.6 percent in November, down 34.6 percent from the year-ago month. That’s according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. November’s year-over-year percentage drop was identical to October’s. Year to date, hotel occupancy in the county was down 38.5 percent compared to 2019.

Onondaga County’s revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, came in at $25.37 in November, down 49 percent from November 2019 levels. That was a little smaller than October’s year-over-year decline of nearly 52 percent in this measure. RevPar was off almost 51 percent through the first 11 months of 2020, compared to the same period last year.

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, was measured at $75.40 in November, down 22.1 percent from a year before. That’s better than October’s decline of more than 26 percent in this indicator. ADR was down nearly 20 percent year to date through November, from 2019 levels.