Excerpt from CoStar
The U.S. travel landscape is approaching a more level, balanced field than it has in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and hoteliers are determined to keep industry performance on a steady track, despite obstacles in the form of inflation and a possible economic recession.
One bright spot from the past few months has been returning volumes of business transient and group travel demand across the country. Executives from major hotel companies at the 44th annual New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference said they’ve been pleasantly surprised to see business transient demand ticking up after long being the laggard.
But while STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm, revised its 2022 forecast favorably, calling for average daily rate to hit $145 in 2022, a significant boost from the past forecast, a few clouds still hang over the otherwise sunny outlook for the U.S. hotel industry.
Inflation and the possibility of a recession remain question marks for hoteliers, and many speakers on the stage during Day One of the conference debated just how much of an impact both will continue to have on people’s willingness to travel, interest rates for hotel financing and whether these economic conditions will create a short-term pause in the breakneck speed of rising ADR and nonstop leisure travel.
Another significant shift — executives' decreasing worries over COVID-19 and any potential new variants. While speakers recognize that new wrenches may be tossed into the recovery, the overwhelming business sentiment is that the country is living with COVID now.
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