Rhode Island Hotels Rebound From Low Pandemic Occupancy, But Need Staff: Report

RHODE ISLAND — The hotel business in Rhode Island is returning to pre-pandemic levels, and state and local governments are on track to receive record hotel tax revenues, according to a new industry report.

Nationally, hotel tax revenue is expected to increase to a record $46.71 billion, according to “A New Era for U.S. Hotels,” a state-of-the-industry report released Tuesday by the American Hotel & Lodging Association and Oxford Economics.

More than three quarters of U.S. hotel rooms were empty in April 2020 as stay-at-home orders and social distancing took hold across the country to control the spread of COVID-19.

Despite the industry’s projected bounce back to near pre-pandemic levels — average U.S. occupancy is projected at 64 percent, coming close to the 2019 occupancy rate of 66 percent — finding enough people to fill hotel and other hospitality jobs remains a challenge, according to the report.

In Rhode Island:

• Hotel-generated state and local tax revenue for 2023 is projected to be roughly $126.16 million, up 25.1 percent from $100.82 million in 2019.

• Hotel occupancy is expected to rebound as well, though likely not quite to 2019 levels, according to the projections for an average of 63.9 percent of rooms to be filled in 2023, compared to 65.2 percent in four years ago.

Also, hiring is a challenge as the Rhode Island hospitality industry returns to normal.

• The number of people directly employed by hotels — housekeepers, front-desk clerks and other staff — is projected to be 6,114 in 2023, down 7.6 percent from 2019.

• Hotel-supported businesses — restaurants, retail shops, entertainment and transportation vendors, small businesses and hotel suppliers, among others — are also having problems finding enough help. These related businesses are expected to employ 23,304 people in 2023, 7.6 percent fewer than the 25,219 people employed in 2019.

At the lowest point in the pandemic, occupancy averaged 44 percent at U.S. hotels. In 2022 as the industry began to come back, occupancy neared 63 percent, a 9 percent increase from 2021.

Hotels across the country are on a hiring spree to fill jobs lost in the pandemic. Nationally, hotel wages average $23 an hour, a historic high, according to Labor Department data.

The employment website Indeed lists nearly 100,000 hotel job openings. Rhode Island has dozens of open positions in multiple categories. Among the hotels hiring are Gurney's Resort in Middletown, the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick and Omni Hotel in Providence.

To help fill positions, the American Hotel & Lodging Association has launched an advertising blitz in 14 metropolitan cities to raise awareness of 200 career pathways in the hotel industry. The campaign, “A Place to Stay,” is currently active in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, San Diego and Tampa.

The group’s Hospitality Is Working affiliate recently launched a Workforce & Immigration Initiative aimed at convincing Congress to address the labor shortage through immigration reform.

Nationally, according to the projections, every direct hotel job supports another 2.6 jobs in the community.

The Washington, D.C.-based American Hotel & Lodging Association’s members represent 80 percent of all franchised hotels and the 16 largest hotel companies in the United States.