U.S. hotel profit improved to 70% of 2019 level, labor spending flat

Gross operating profit for U.S. hotels reached 70 percent of the comparable 2019 level, according to STR’s May 2021 monthly P&L data release. While demand, revenues and GOP continue to uptick, labor spending remained flat from the previous month at 64 percent.

Each of the key profitability metrics, on a per-available-room basis, came in higher than any month since February 2020 except for labor:

“May was another step forward as more economic reopening and more demand pushed industry-wide profitability further upward,” said Raquel Ortiz, STR’s assistant director of financial performance. “Overall, 95 percent of hotels broke even on a GOP basis, while 73 percent bro