ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — This time of year should be travel season. With Thanksgiving this week and the winter holiday and Christmas right around the corner, people would ordinarily be gearing up and booking their flight, hotel reservations, and other accommodations to visit family or friends nationwide or internationally, or get away on a winter excursion.

But the global coronavirus pandemic has halted many travel plans, devastating the travel industry and hotels nationwide, said Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association CEO and President Chip Rogers said.

A recent nationwide survey by AHLA, an industry group representing more than 28,000 members in the hotel industry, found that seven out of 10 people will not travel for Thanksgiving or the Christmas holiday season this year.

“When you look at how they [the survey participants] responded with, it’s pretty damaging to our industry and quite concerning,” said Rogers. “The numbers are staggering. Seven out of 10 Americans are not going to travel this year. Usually, it’s the opposite. More than 70% do travel for the holidays.”

The survey of more than 2,200 people nationwide was done right as coronavirus cases spiked nationwide. Despite the impact the pandemic has caused the travel and hotel industry, there is no relief in sight for hoteliers, Rogers added.

"We need Congress to do something."

Here in Southern California, Orange and Los Angeles counties have hit a record number of coronavirus cases, and there are fears that hospitals will get overwhelmed. On Friday, the Orange County Health Care Agency reported 1,169 new cases, the most since July 6 — when the county recorded 1,050 positive cases. On Monday, L.A. County recorded 6,124 new cases and eight deaths.

As cases spiked, California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week ordered a nightly curfew for residents in counties in the purple tier, the state’s most restrictive tier monitoring coronavirus cases. Non-essential work, travel, and gatherings in these counties are prohibited from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the next month.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the public not travel for the holidays. This latest round of orders is another death knell for the hotel industry. 

In October, the occupancy rates in the Los Angeles/Long Beach and Santa Ana/Anaheim regions were 53% and 44%, respectively, according to STR. Nationwide, hotel occupancy is at 44% this year, compared to 66% last year.

Leisure and business travel are tanking. Industry experts say hotels won’t fully recover until 2024.  

"Even with the encouraging vaccine news... this pandemic and the subsequent economic impact will continue to limit hotel demand generators into the second half of next year," said STR President Amanda Hite said in a news release. “Business demand won’t return at a substantial level until caseloads are better contained, and in the meantime, recovery is going to be primarily driven by lower-tier hotels in the leisure-driven markets with outdoor offerings.”

At a recent NYU Hospitality Conference, STR and Tourism Economics say they expect the hotel industry to bounce back late next year. 

The latest survey by AHLA is a reflection of the hotel industry's wider struggle. Since March, when the coronavirus pandemic began, only three out of 10 people surveyed have taken a leisure trip or stayed at a hotel overnight. Looking ahead, only 24% of survey participants plan to take a vacation during Spring Break next year. And more than half say their next hotel stay for vacation or leisure travel will be a year from now. 

Rogers said the survey response is a sobering reality and shows a greater need for a new round of relief for hoteliers.

“This is one of the most difficult times that any business can possibly imagine,” he said. “There was nothing that we could have done to prepare for this.”

Rogers said the federal government’s paycheck protection program was great for those hoteliers that qualified, but that money has run out. AHLA has said that more than 74% of hotels won't last another six months without relief.

Since the start of the pandemic, a quarter of all hotel jobs have been lost, Rogers explained. If this trend continues, another quarter of all hotel related jobs is expected to be gone.

“That’s 50% of hotel jobs eliminated within an 18-month period,” he said. “These problems have real world implications. These are real people with families. The industry is struggling. We need relief.”