Stayed in a hotel lately? Neither have I.
Revenue in the hotel sector is projected to be down $59 billion this year compared with 2019, per a report from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and Kalibri Labs, a hotel data analytics company.
Why it matters: Business travel — which, for a shiny moment, looked like it might rebound, before COVID-19's Delta variant surge — is the bread and butter of the hotel business. Now it's "not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2024," according to AHLA.
What they're saying: An estimated 67% of business travelers "are planning to take fewer trips, 52% are likely to cancel existing travel plans without rescheduling, and 60% are planning to postpone existing travel plans," according to a national survey by Morning Consult on behalf of AHLA.
- "Hotels are expected to end 2021 down nearly 500,000 jobs compared to 2019," the hotel association says.