Adjusted paid occupancy rate is the number of nights booked per night available, removing nights held for maintenance or owner stays. If a market or property manager has been able to maintain an adjusted paid occupancy rate equal to the previous year’s rate, it is an indicator that they are occupied as much as they were the previous year. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, a 2020 adjusted paid occupancy rate that is similar to 2019 is an indicator of recovery in bookings.
These graphs show the difference between 2020 and 2019 adjusted occupancy paid occupancy. The y-axis displays the percent change between the adjusted paid occupancy rate for 2020 and 2019 (for example, 10% means a 10% increase in adjusted paid occupancy for 2020 over 2019).
One month ago, on March 26, the adjusted paid occupancy rates for a few major southeast destinations recovered in mid-July (blue line). Now, that recovery doesn’t occur until August 15 in the Smokies and August 5 for the Panhandle and Outer Banks (orange line). Four weeks of slow booking activity has pushed this measure of recovery back seven weeks. Fortunately, booking activity has begun to bounce back, and as travel restrictions are lifted, last-minute bookings could lead to an earlier occupancy recovery date than currently forecast.