Guess who's back, back again?

Group travel is back, tell a friend.

Comments from executives at hotel brand companies and hospitality real estate investment trusts during first quarter earnings calls indicate renewed confidence in the demand for meetings and events for the remainder of the year, so much so that some companies have reinstated or updated guidance.

Bryan Giglia, CEO of Sunstone Hotel Investors, said increasing business travel, strong citywide events calendars and the return of group functions are expected to support sustained performance growth.

This is great news for the travel industry, but two questions I have are: What exactly will these meetings and group events look like? Are there any meeting planners out there want to pull out a crystal ball?

I will likely be able to answer the Five Ws around the return of group travel — who, what, when, where and why — with much more confidence in just a few short months when I moderate a panel titled "The Future of Meetings and Events" at the Hotel Data Conference, but until then, I'd like to speculate based on trends we've seen so far.

I'll warn you, these aren't epiphanies or anything you all haven't heard before, but I think if we are still acknowledging some of the same ideas, that means they are becoming trends that will stick (at least for now) and are worth talking about.

Las Vegas is a great example of a city where events are ramping up, thus creating strong weekend hotel occupancies and rates. MGM Resorts International President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle said during the company's first quarter earnings call that convention room nights at its Las Vegas properties could reach 90% of 2019 levels by the end of 2022.

Sports Business Journal reports that in the past nine months, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority sponsored 36 sporting events, which brought in nearly 1 million fans. It's expected that number will expand over the next four years.

Even better news for Las Vegas is the recent announcement that Formula 1 will hold a Saturday night race on the Strip in November of next year, which "could wind up being the most-attended entertainment event the city has ever hosted," the news outlet reports.

For a further look into the demand that racing events bring to host cities, read through this data insights blog from STR, CoStar's hospitality analytics firm. One highlight from this blog that I'll make note of is that as of April 4, Montreal, which is set to host the Canadian Grand Prix on June 19, had occupancy on the books that was already peaking at 83%.

The New Orleans hotel market can look forward to the return of core festivals — including Jazz Fest, Essence Fest, French Quarter Fest — as well as hosting the NCAA Men's Final Four tournament. Hospitality leaders who were surveyed in March said "these gatherings increased their company's bottom line."

And we can't forget about Super Bowl week and weekend demand. Hotels in Los Angeles this year had sell-outs across the board and were able to achieve near-record average daily rates.

Ah yes, hotels in gateway urban markets. Remember those? Hotels in leisure destination markets sure got most of the love these past few years, but make way — hotel executives are noting these urban properties will gain momentum.

Leslie Hale, president and CEO of RLJ Lodging Trust, said during her company's earnings call that "urban leisure" was mostly muted in 2021 but will achieve strength as attractions fully open in the summer months.

The same goes for Park Hotels & Resorts. Chief Financial Officer Sean Dell'Orto said broad-based recovery has taken shape within its markets, especially across its urban portfolio of hotels.

Sourav Ghosh, executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer at Host Hotels & Resorts, said New York and San Francisco — two markets that had struggled to retain group travel in the past few years — have achieved sequential improvements in international demand.

And while leisure demand at DiamondRock Hospitality's resort hotels has been accelerating, group and business transient demand at its urban hotels is also picking up.

There's plenty of evidence pointing to a revival for these hotel types.

With an influx of business and group travelers, weekday occupancy is expected to reach higher levels. Data from STR shows hotel occupancy in the top 25 U.S. markets was 71.5% for the week ending April 30, while weekday occupancy was 70.2%.

"Group demand during much of the pandemic has been driven by social groups on weekends, but day-of-the-week patterns suggest this is shifting somewhat. Weekday group demand for the week was the highest its been since early 2020, with 12 of the top 25 markets — including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Nashville, San Diego and San Francisco — reporting pandemic-era highs in the metric," the news release states.

Aside from any of the unknown cards that could be dealt on the industry, I feel like the industry is finally getting back to a place that we all were hoping for even six months ago. No, nothing is quite yet as perfect and seamless as it used to seem, but we're more than one step closer.

With that said, hoteliers, I would love to hear what your properties are experiencing. Is group travel back with full force? Let me know via Email, Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn. And if you'd like to participate in a discussion about this, come join me in Nashville this August for "The Future of Meetings and Events" panel at Hotel Data Conference.

I guess there's a group traveler in all of us. So let's all stand up.

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.

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