STR: Canada hotel occupancy reached five‑month high in March

March 2023 (percentage change from 2019) 

• Occupancy: 62.6 per cent (+4.2 per cent)

• Average daily rate (ADR): CAD177.72 (+19.6 per cent)

• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): CAD111.23 (+24.6 per cent)

“Canada’s hotel performance continued its upward trajectory in March, with key metric indices showing accelerated growth compared to the first two months of the year,” says Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of hospitality analytics for Canada. CoStar Group is the parent company of STR. 

“Notably, the ADR increase against 2019 was the highest of the pandemic era, showing no signs of pulling back on a national level,” Baxter said. ​“Rate improvements were seen during the weekday, with the index once again advancing on 2019 levels, suggesting that corporate rate increases implemented this year are starting to reflect in the weekday data. Added leisure rates during March break, which are typically higher than corporate rates, also contributed favourably to the blended weekday rate. When examining location types, the highest room rate lifts were in resorts and airport hotels, further pointing to strong growth surrounding March break travel.

“Weekday occupancy was 3 per cent ahead of the 2019 comparable, a positive sign for the return of business travel. April and May weekday occupancy will give a better reading on the segment’s health, but we have seen improvements taking place with first-quarter weekday occupancy down just 1 per cent against the pre-pandemic level. This is down slightly more in urban hotels, a decline of 5 per cent over the same timeframe, demonstrating the lag of corporate travel. The segment with the most runway for improvement at a national level, however, is group with occupancy down 9 per cent from the Q1 2019.”

Among the provinces and territories, Manitoba recorded the highest March occupancy level (76.7 per cent), which surpassed the pre-pandemic comparable by 14.0 per cent. 

Among the major markets, Vancouver reported the highest occupancy level (77.5 per cent), which was 3.8 per cent above 2019. 

New Brunswick (51.5 per cent) saw the lowest occupancy among provinces, up 0.6 per cent against 2019. At the market-level, the lowest occupancy was reported in Calgary (56.3 per cent) which was 9.8 per cent above the 2019 comparable. 

Of note, Prince Edward Island hotels benefited from hosting the Canada Winter Games, resulting in an increase across the key performance metrics: occupancy (51.9 per cent), ADR (CAD149.01) and RevPAR (CAD77.36).