Skift Take
"You won’t break my soul," Beyoncé sings. But her concert series might break some hotel booking records.
We know out-of-town fans of Taylor Swift have boosted tourism in major cities in 2023. Beyoncé has her own power to lift hotel bookings, too.
Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour dates in Europe and the U.S. overlapped with better-than-usual performances at hotels near her venues. That’s according to a market impact analysis of Beyoncé on the hotel sector that CoStar’s STR released on Tuesday.
Cardiff, Wales, was the market that enjoyed the biggest boost of all the tour host cities.
“Average daily rate (ADR) popped to $247 from a baseline of $106,” said STR about Cardiff.
Hotels Enjoy Beyoncé Bump
Cologne, Germany, was another city that benefited. During Beyoncé’s concert, the city enjoyed an $80 revenue per available room premium for the market. It had 95.3% of its hotel rooms filled, compared to its baseline occupancy rate for the period of 61.1%.
Houston was another place to enjoy a Beyoncé Bump. Hotels in the city generated $18 million in revenue across the nights of her concerts, September 23 and 24, according to destination marketing firm Houston First on Monday. That was 45% higher revenue than the same weekend a year earlier.
“The Houston market saw … a market lift in average daily rate by $21 for a concert,” STR said on Tuesday.
Houston hotels enjoyed an average daily rate of $241 on Saturday — a near record for the city for this year.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Beyoncé’s tour stop in August delivered the tenth-highest revenue night ever for hotels in the county where the stadium is based. “The market’s RevPAR [revenue per available room] premium of $49 was heated during a lower performance time in the market,” said CoStar’s STR on Tuesday.
But Some Cities Didn’t Benefit
It’s possible to overstate the Beyoncé Effect, however.
“Some markets popped, while others remained closer to normal demand trends,” STR’s said.
Some cities, such as London, Boston, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, saw little or no measurable gain above the norm.
Concerts on weeknights when school was in session were much less likely to drive travel demand.
About one in five host cities actually saw hotel performance on concert nights actually come in below their recent typical norms. These cities typically were ones with lots of hotel rooms during seasons when their hotels already tend to do pretty well.
Yet the tour’s effect on the travel sector was notable and certainly was competitive with the effect of Taylor Swift’s performances.
Forbes has forecasted Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour to make $2 billion in ticket sales this year through this month. The artist has won more Grammy Awards than any other person.
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Tags: dynamic pricing, future of lodging, hotel prices, hotel pricing, music
Photo credit: Musical artist Beyoncé performed at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 1, 2023. raph_ph / Flickr / Creative Commons