Why Napa's hotel occupancy is up by double digits for October

NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

November 20, 2018

Order Article Reprint

North Bay Hotel Data

For October, compared with a year before.

NAPA COUNTY

• Occupancy: 78.3%, up 21.6%

• Average daily rate: $402.65, up 31.9%

• Revenue: $49.3 million, up 65.1%

• Year-to-date revenue: up 8%

• Survey size: 5,049 rooms

SONOMA COUNTY

• Occupancy: 80.7%, up 7.3%

• Average daily rate: $196.58, up 6.5%

• Revenue: $32.5 million, up 15.6%

• Year-to-date revenue: up 11.2%

• Survey size: 6,609 rooms

MARIN COUNTY

• Occupancy: 83.7%, down 5.2%

• Average daily rate: $212.05, up 3.6%

• Revenue: $13.9 million, down 1.8%

• Year-to-date revenue: up 3.0%

• Survey size: 2,536 rooms

SOLANO COUNTY

• Occupancy: 76.7%, down 4.7%

• Average daily rate: $106.53, up 2.5%

• Revenue: $10.8 million, down 5.1%

• Year-to-date revenue: up 2.1%

• Survey size: 4,269 rooms

Source: STR

See more area hotel data

here.

New figures show how much impact the October 2017 North Bay wildfires had on Napa County hotel revenues afterward.

Last month, the average occupancy rate was 21.6 percentage points ahead of the same month last year, according to a report Tuesday from travel data firm STR. And revenue last month was $49.3 million, 65.1 percent ahead of that of October 2017.

Napa Valley occupancy had dropped 22 percentage points in October 2017 from a year before, and monthly revenues declined by 36 percent.

A bounce back after the fires helped Napa County reverse a five-month trend of declines in occupancy rates that began May. Still, the year has seen more declines in rates than up-ticks since January.

Revenues in the wine-dominated economy are up strongly over the fire-ravaged month of October 2017 but at $373.7 million, year to date are just 8 percent head of the year before at this point.

In Sonoma County, where fires wiped out thousands of homes and drove residents to look for temporary places to stay, there was much less of a recovery in hotel business to be had. The average occupancy rate for the county had double-digit increases from November 2017 through February of this year.

In October, the hotel occupancy rate was just 7.3 percent ahead of October, 2017 and monthly revenue was 15.6 percent up. At $289.2 million, revenue through October in Sonoma County was up by 11.2 percent.

Marin and Solano counties had single-digit declines in revenue and occupancy last month from a year earlier.