Who runs the world? Beyoncé.
The performer's Renaissance World Tour, which ran from May 10 to Oct. 1, was the highest-grossing tour by a female artist ever and generated an estimated $4.5 billion in economic impact in the U.S., according to the New York Times.
Although Beyoncé's concert tour was certainly impactful for economies across the world, its effect on hotel performance is less clear.
Most markets in Europe and North America had no problem finding their groove with increased hotel occupancy, average daily rates and revenue per available room along the tour stops. But the impact wasn’t flawless across the board, as hotels in predominantly larger cities reported little change in hotel performance.
“Our analysis of hotel performance data showed a rather inconsistent impact market to market, which makes the market standouts the more ‘unique’ focus, rather than overall impact,” M. Brian Riley, senior analyst at STR, wrote in an STR blog post.
By the Numbers
Of the 25 North American markets that Beyoncé performed in — excluding her makeup Kansas City show on Oct. 1 — Houston, Seattle, Vancouver, Charlotte, Detroit and New Orleans were the top six for occupancy, revenue per available room and average daily rate premiums, according to CoStar data.
“The impacts were definitely more localized in certain markets, certainly central locations, whether it be downtown or the hotels nearest to the venue,” Riley said. “If there are fewer people coming into town, maybe rates have gone up and concertgoers don’t have to move as far out to find something that fits in their budget, but there was a more localized impact.”
Charlotte, the “Queen City,” especially had strong hotel performance across the board when “Queen Bey” came to town Aug. 9. The city's hotels had the largest average daily rate and revenue per available room premiums of the North American cities at 30.1% and 62.9%, respectively, above the market's baseline. Its occupancy premium of 16.5% was good for third.
New Orleans was the only other North American market to post a RevPAR lift of more than 50% from baseline data, according to CoStar data.
Cody Bertone, general manager of the Virgin Hotels New Orleans, said his property had year-over-year RevPAR growth of 261.9%, occupancy growth of 126.3% and ADR growth of 60% when Beyoncé came to town Sept. 27.
Hotel performance in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston was strong over its two-day concert span on Sept. 23-24. Houston hotels had the fourth-highest RevPAR premium at 42%, the second highest ADR premium at 19.5% and finished sixth in year-over-year occupancy change at 10.7%.
Most markets across the board posted at least a 5% RevPAR lift from baseline data, but there were a few exceptions in Boston, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Hotels in those three markets actually posted a slight decline in occupancy on the concert nights.
One reason for the lack of hotel performance growth during Beyoncé’s stops is they are already high-inventory markets during a high-performance season, Riley said.
“As with occupancy, there was a correlation of market size with the degree of ADR premium gains, and smaller, more compressed markets saw the larger share of gains in rates,” Riley said.
Five markets in Europe exceeded a 50% RevPAR lift from their baselines: Cardiff, Wales; Cologne, Germany; North East England (Sunderland), England; Sweden (Stockholm); and Warsaw, Poland. Of the European tour stops, Cologne had the largest occupancy premium at 34.2% and finished in the top three in both ADR premium at 39.5% and RevPAR premium at 117.7%.
“As a sign of a global fan base, concert night ADR gains shot up even higher than the top U.S. markets in Cardiff, Warsaw and Cologne, with two additional markets seeing rate gains above 35% in the England Northeast Provincial and Sweden,” Riley said.
Similar to the U.S. results, the impact on hotel performance was smaller in larger markets. Hotels in London, Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-CDA and Barcelona all posted decreases in ADR and RevPAR, compared to baselines for the markets. Occupancy also decreased in London and Ile-de-France, while the other two markets saw slight increases.
General Manager Anecdotes
The Virgin Hotel New Orleans put on a couple of promotions throughout the week of the concert to capitalize on the buzz from the Beyhive, Beyoncé's fans.
A few days before the concert, the hotel hosted a Beyoncé burlesque and drag brunch that featured a two-course meal, the option to add bottomless mimosas or brunch cocktails, and a local vendor on-site with a hat bar. The day of the concert, it had a DJ playing Beyoncé-inspired music from 4-7 p.m. with cocktails, a pop-up nail salon and a pop-up glitter bar for concertgoers to pre-game the big night.
Bertone said his only regret was not doing more promotions.
“If I could do anything different, I think we would have scheduled another brunch on [the concert day] to really capture everyone that stayed for the event,” he said. “We'll probably look at doing something like that [moving forward] … to capture all of our hotel guests to enjoy something special on-property.”
Bertone said he wants to expand the Virgin Hotel New Orleans' programming even more to give guests an experience within the experience.
“It's all about the subtle details that you bring to these events that just leave the guests walking away with a ‘Wow, I've never seen that before. I'd come back again to this hotel. It felt like the event itself,’” he said.
Seattle hotels posted double-digit increases across the board in concert-night RevPAR, ADR and occupancy.
Sebastian Hinsch, general manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Seattle, said demand was “fairly steady” at his hotel year over year.
The rates, however, were “much higher this year,” thanks in part to an uptick in suite sales, he said. Hinsch’s hotel didn’t do special preparations or promotions in anticipation of the concert coming into town, but he said it was important to fully staff the hotel and be ready to answer guests’ questions.