Report Assesses Struggle Of Hotel Industry 6 Months Into Covid-19 Crisis

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) has just released a report detailing the economic and human struggle of the hotel industry after six months of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its dire findings include millions of employees still furloughed or laid off and travel demand lagging far behind normal levels.  

Key findings of the report:

• Four out of 10 hotel employees are still not working.
• Almost two-thirds (65%) of hotels remain at or below 50 percent occupancy, which is below the threshold at which most hotels can break even and pay debt.
• Consumer travel remains at all-time low, with only 33 percent of Americans reporting they have traveled overnight for leisure or vacation since March and just 38 percent saying they are likely to travel by the end of the year.
• Urban hotels are suffering the most and facing collapse with cripplingly low occupancies of 38 percent, significantly below the national average.
• Covid-19 has left hotels in major cities across the country struggling to stay in business, resulting in massive job loss and dramatically reducing state and local tax revenue for 2020 and beyond.

AHLA President and CEO Chip Rogers said the prolonged economic impact of the pandemic has taken an incredible toll on the hotel industry.

“While hotels have seen an uptick in demand during the summer compared to where we were in April, occupancy rates are nowhere near where they were a year ago. Thousands of hotels can’t afford to pay their mortgages and are facing the possibility of foreclosure and closing their doors permanently,” said Rogers.

“We are incredibly worried about the fall and what the drop in demand will mean for the industry and the millions of employees we have been unable to bring back. The job loss will be devastating to our industry, our communities, and the overall American economy. We need urgent, bipartisan action from Congress now.”