Canada’s hotel industry reported its highest occupancy level since August 2019, according to CoStar’s August 2023 data. CoStar is a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in the property markets.
Laura Baxter, CoStar Group’s director of hospitality analytics for Canada, said that although year-over-year growth has moderated from earlier in the year, performance improvement in August was still a considerable achievement against stronger metrics from the previous year’s ‘revenge period.’
“Demand patterns across the segments are starting to normalise. Both transient and weekend occupancies have been gradually returning closer to 2019 levels over the course of this year. However, this is not the same for ADR as both segments continue to see rates at an elevated level,” said Baxter.
While hoteliers have reported strong demand from tours, sports teams, and smaller groups, demand from large groups has lagged. Group rates, however, are making up for much of the shortfall in demand, and we anticipate booking patterns to normalise moving forward.
Among the provinces and territories, Newfoundland and Labrador recorded the highest August occupancy level at 88.2 percent, which was 3.3 percent above 2022.
Among the major markets, Vancouver saw the highest occupancy of 86.4 percent, which was 0.8 percent ahead of August 2022.
The lowest occupancy among provinces was reported in Saskatchewan at 64.3 percent, up 4.1 percent against 2022. At the market level, the lowest occupancy was reported in Edmonton, which was up 10.5 percent to 66.7 percent.
“Hotels in Alberta housed wildfire evacuees, creating elevated hotel demand in the market, and strong occupancy growth in Calgary and Edmonton. With a short tourism ban put in place in the Okanagan, hotel performance in Kelowna fell year over year. The ban has been lifted, and hotels are ready to welcome visitors.”
