In 2019, hoteliers believed they were having the best year ever in the industry. Data backed this up, as rates and revenue surged.
In the U.S., the prolonged "upcycle," or period of growth, was epitomized by a streak of months in which revenue per available room increased — 102 months straight before the first dip in March 2019, and 112 out of 116 months by October, when two consecutive months of RevPAR declines indicated the upcycle was coming to an official end.
On the stage and reception floors at industry conferences and events, hoteliers seemed to have a favorite way to describe the prolonged period of growth and optimism: The hotel industry is like a baseball game that has gone into extra innings.
It wasn't the bottom of the ninth, which might indicate the end was nigh. Instead, it felt like the game, and the good times, could go on still for minutes, or innings, more. It could also end with a big play at the plate — a home run, a strikeout or a runner tagged short — or in the outfield, with a catch at the wall or a snagged pop-up fly ball.
What wasn't expected — and what ultimately happened in March of 2020 — was the game ending in a mass blackout. The lights, and hotel demand, shut off almost completely in an instant with the COVID-19 pandemic in the worst crisis ever to face the hotel industry.
As the crisis was unprecedented, so has the recovery been.
In 2022, as events and conferences reemerged and hoteliers again ventured out to pontificate about the state of the industry, a new simile or metaphor was needed to address the changing times and the "new normal."
At the Hotel Data Conference in August, hosted by CoStar hospitality analytics firm STR and Hotel News Now in Nashville, in an on-the-street-style series of quick video interviews, hoteliers in attendance finished the prompt: "The hotel industry today is like ..."
The similes ranged from sports to food and beverage to the things they, as hoteliers and travelers, had longed for most: gatherings.
Watch the video above to hear some of what hoteliers had to say about the state of the hotel industry today.