Towards the end of first quarter of 2021, the Canadian Hotel industry has begun to see slight improvement in demand; Western Canada led the strongest demand improvement over 2020 while the Atlantic bubble continues to deliver a devastating impact to the market.
As we observe World Autism Awareness Day, we want to highlight what our industry can do to help support individuals with autism. To better understand the diversity challenges, growing diversity programs, and opportunities to be more inclusive within the hospitality industry, we interviewed the founders of Autism Double-Checked, an organization that provides autism-specific training to hotel staff to create more autism-friendly travel experiences.
2020: A year like no other in the Canadian Hotel Industry, a year to capitalize on fine tuning operations to be more efficient for when demand returns in 2021.
In Spring 2020, many hotels were forced to furlough most on-property Sales Managers because so much demand for hotels disappeared with the pandemic, requiring any remaining team members to be responsible for market segments which previously were not their responsibility. These remaining Sales Managers were forced to adapt to many other changes in a short time, including rescheduling/canceling events.
Through Q3 2020, RevPar in Canada continues to deteriorate, declining 61% over 2019. Hotels in the luxury segment and those with more than 500 rooms have taken the brunt of the impact. Covid-19 is not affecting markets uniformly across the country. The Okanagan and Northern Ontario markets have fared best with decreases of 33% and 35% while the hardest hit market, Downtown Montreal has a RevPAR decline close to 80%. With the pandemic not slowing, we don’t foresee improvement until the spring.
Mobile phone proliferation and the rise in social media users is poised to present unique opportunities for hotel companies. How are hotels currently utilizing social media marketing and are they ready for the future?
Through Q2 2020 the Canadian lodging industry is experiencing a RevPAR decrease of close to 55%. The luxury segment and hotels with more than 500 rooms have taken the brunt of the Covid-19 impact on lodging demand. The summer leisure domestic demand should prove a short term uptick in Q3.
Should Marketing Spends be put on hold during these unprecedented times? Read our article to know more.
Unprecedented declines in Covid-19 RevPARs in March in every major market throughout Canada, is expected to continue through next quarter as well.
RevPar growth across Canada is flat through the third quarter of 2019. On a provincial level, BC leads the pack with over 3.0% growth with Quebec on its heels at 2.5%. Newfoundland struggles to absorb new supply with a near 6.0% decline and Manitoba's softer market leads to a 3.0% decrease.