One of the largest global celebrations each year is, undoubtably, Chinese New Year. Although the celebration this year (11-17 February 2021) felt different for the country, there was a noticeable impact around hotel performance.
Rather than compare with performance during 2020 Chinese New Year dates, which was significantly lower because of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, STR compared the festive periods of 2021 and 2019.
One week before the festive period in 2021, both corporate and leisure demand slowed in Mainland China. On 11 February, the market saw an occupancy level of only 17.9%, which was just 11 percentage points lower than the 2019 comparable. On 14 and 15 February, however, the market saw occupancy reach 36.7% and 34.2%, respectively.
On 17 February, the last day of the holiday period, occupancy didn’t drop as it may have been expected. After the holiday, demand bounced quickly and picked up much quicker than the comparable week in 2019. On 24 February, for instance, the market saw a 47.9% occupancy level, which was not far off from the 24 February 2019 level of 48.7%.
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During Chinese New Year in 2021, several classes outperformed the 2019 benchmark. Among those classes, high-end hotels were the most favored.
When indexed against 2019, Luxury class ADR (CNY102.97) was higher during 2021 Chinese New Year, while the Luxury occupancy index (59.5% of 2019 levels) was better than the other hotel classes.
When looking strictly at occupancy, Upper Upscale hotels saw the second highest indexed occupancy (56.6%). Upscale ADR reached CNY90.26 for the same period, the second highest indexed ADR.
Midscale and Economy class hotels saw the lowest indexed occupancy (46.7%) and ADR (CNY 66.21).
