10 Exciting Hotel Industry Statistics

The hotel industry helps people have a safe place to stay when they’re away from home. Sometimes that’s because of a holiday. At other times it is because there simply is no place to call home at that moment in time. Either way, the hotel industry provides a needed commodity in virtually every community around the world.

Hotel Industry Statistics

There are almost 5 million guest rooms in the United States alone.

Guest rooms can run a wide range of costs and styles. Some of the most remote towns on the planet have a motel where a guest can stay for a few bucks with very little for amenities. Metropolitan areas have five star accommodations that cost five figures per night. As a whole, the worldwide hotel industry generated $593 billion in revenues in the last year.

Three Key Facts About the Hotel Industry

1. Growth has been rather stagnant in the hotel industry over the last five years, averaging just 0.2% growth worldwide.
2. The average cost to rent a guest room in 2012 was $106.15. Although this is about 5% higher than the previous year, it is still lower than 2008 average room rates.
3. The average occupancy rate for rooms is 61.4%.

Takeaway: There is no doubt that the global recession or depression, depending on the country, had a direct impact on this industry. In 2009, tourism rates declined dramatically, which had a prolonged holdover effect on the hotel industry’s growth. Despite this, occupancy rates are still reasonably high, as is the revenue margin for each room: over $60 per occupied room, per night. In the United States, that accounts for $155 billion in revenues alone.

Other Essential Facts About the Hotel Industry

1. The travel and tourism industry employs an average of 1.8 million hotel workers annually for wages and salaries that top $200 billion annually.
2. Small town and suburban locations account for nearly half of all properties in the hotel industry.
3. The typical hotel offers fewer than 75 rooms. In the United States, only 535 hotels offered more than 500 rooms at one location.
4. Men make up two thirds of all hotel guests on a nightly basis for business purposes
5. 80% of the guests that stay in a hotel on any given night are traveling alone when traveling for business.
6. Over 90% of all travelers will make a reservation to stay at a hotel today.
7. 48% of travelers that stay in a hotel room for leisure purposes spend just one night in any given hotel.

Takeaway: Although you can still take a long road trip and pick a hotel out based on price or advertising, it is becoming much more difficult to do this successfully. With toll-free reservation lines and internet reservations so easy to do and with discounts available sometimes for those who make these reservations, a hotel can be booked up for weeks before a road trip is even thought about. International travelers especially make use of multi-night stays, especially in North America, and this also helps local communities drive revenues and ultimately employment.