COVID-19 webinar summary: 5 key points on Latin America hotel performance, 2 February

Knowing you might not have time to watch our full webinars, we are pleased to continue our series of COVID-19 webinar summaries. In this latest edition, we talk performance in Latin America.

More open hotels, more demand

From STR’s sample as of 23 January, 96% of hotel rooms in South America were open compared with 92% in Central America. At the same time, South America has been exceeding 30% occupancy since the end of November except for the period between 26-28 December (25%).

High-end average daily rate

All hotel classes in South America have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Luxury & Upper Upscale segment maintained ADR the best in 2020 with just a 17.9% decrease. The next best comparison was Upscale & Upper Midscale (-21.4%).

Market-level performance

When using total-room-inventory (TRI) methodology, which excludes temporary closures due to the pandemic, Lima occupancy was the highest in the region in 2020 (38%), followed closely by Manaus (33%) and Rio de Janeiro (30%).
 

Beach destinations lead New Year’s performance

Beach destinations in Latin America have seen steady occupancy increases due to rising domestic demand. Coinciding with New Year’s celebrations, for the week ending with 2 January, all beach destinations in the region posted occupancy levels higher than 50%. Santa Marta posted a 63.6% occupancy level, followed closely Acapulco (62.2%) and Guanacaste (61.3%).
 

Occupancy on the books shows short-term reservations & events impact

Powered by Forward STAR data, the below image includes occupancy on the books for the next 365 days (as of 4 January) in Bogota, and further insights are provided in the full webinar recording. Occupancy-on-the-books intelligence will help us all understand recovery and provide much-needed context. Those insights can be accessed for free when you submit your data. If you are interested, please email sales@str.com.
 

For further insights into COVID-19’s impact on global hotel performance, visit our content hub.