As the unofficial bachelorette party capital of the U.S., home to several professional sports teams and uncontested home of country music, Nashville accommodations operators enjoyed spectacular performance in the lead-up to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After more than a year of lockdowns and closures, recovery is now in full swing for Music City. For short-term rentals, this heralds a reversal of the COVID-19-era trends first established in April 2020.
Short-term rental occupancy trailed higher-end hotel occupancy prior to COVID-19, but throughout the pandemic, the additional space and kitchen area afforded by short-term rentals made them the accommodation of choice for essential travelers and locals alike. As a result, short-term rental occupancy outpaced hotel occupancy by a wide margin, and rentals’ closest competitors were the budget-friendly and extended-stay-heavy midscale and economy hotel segment.
The gap between rental occupancy and hotel occupancy has started to shrink, however, signaling a return to normal performance patterns as hotel occupancy surged in response to the end of Nashville’s COVID-19 restrictions in mid-May.
While rental occupancy remains strong, the shift in traveler type from essential back to leisure appears in a short-term rental specific metric: average length of stay. During the worst of the pandemic, average length of stay reached nearly two weeks as guests stayed in Nashville for longer, non-leisure periods. The trend has reversed in recent months even as occupancy continues to climb as shorter-stay leisure guests flock to the market for a long weekend.
The party is just beginning for Music City, and after more than a year of difficulties, both short-term rentals and hotels can expect a strong, leisure-driven summer ahead.
Interested in more? STR’s Hotel Data Conference is back, live and live-streamed this August, with an agenda of more than 50 data presentations and panels to explore hotel performance in a post-COVID-19 world.
Kelsey Fenerty is a research analyst at STR.
This article represents an interpretation of data collected by STR, CoStar's hospitality analytics firm. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.