Omicron Shows Negligible Impact to Global Hotel Industry for Now
Photo Credit: Hotels didn't show significant reaction to the Omicron variant in the first full week of performance data released since the new strain was detected. RawPixel / Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress collection
Skift Take
Anxieties of a Delta replay were certainly stoked when Omicron was first discovered. So what does a new coronavirus variant mean for hotels? Not too much, based on early performance data.
The first full week of hotel data since the Omicron variant was detected doesn’t show signs the new strain torpedoed performance.
Revenue per available room, the hotel industry’s key performance metric, in the U.S. last week was roughly 9 percent off 2019 levels, according to STR data. It was down 14 percent in Europe and showed a 36 percent decline in China.
None of these figures are stark changes from performance over the last month, and massive impact may never arrive considering swelling sentiment Omicron cases, though more contagious, are milder than the earlier Delta variant.
