ASHEVILLE – Rising sales in Buncombe County for hotels and other types of accommodation broke another record despite the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hotels, vacation rentals, and bed and breakfasts generated $ 54.2 million in August, according to data shared at a meeting of the Buncombe Tourism Development Authority on Oct. 27. That’s the highest ever value for this month, and was 31% over $ 41.1 million in August 2020.
It is also the third most common for each month and follows a record breaking one $ 56.7 million in June and $ 65.1 million in July.
Last week, TDA officials said they didn’t know the September numbers. However, accommodation revenues are expected to be the highest yet in October, they said.
The sales trend “is far exceeding that of previous years,” County Treasury Director Don Warn told TDA members at the latest meeting.
But there was little discussion about the historic highs. HP Patel, newly appointed to the TDA by the Buncombe Board of Commissioners, introduced himself at the meeting and said he opened a fourth hotel, Tru by Hilton, in April, “that was great timing in terms of business and Asheville “.
“So the summer has been great and will be great until autumn,” said Patel.
The astonishingly high sales are due to persistent demands by many residents to cut tourism and redistribute the lodging tax, which is also breaking records and grossed $ 27 million in the fiscal year ended June 30.
Three quarters of the tax is used for tourist advertising. A quarter goes to projects that are intended to boost hotel operations but can also benefit the locals, including green spaces and sports fields. Lots of residents and the city council that had new hotels banned For 17 months, he asked for less advertising and money that goes directly to public services.
Officials from the TDA, the government agency primarily made up of hoteliers that controls the tax, now say it support the shift. But legislative efforts to bring about the change stalled in the General Assembly.
However, decreasing utilization can make the TDA less enthusiastic about lowering the portion of the tax that is used for marketing.
Of the $ 54.1 million in sales in August, $ 33.3 million came from hotels and $ 19.5 million from vacation rentals sold on platforms like Airbnb. The remaining 1.4 million US dollars were generated by traditional bed and breakfasts.
The biggest growth has been in vacation rentals, as tourists flocked to them during the pandemic.
Vic Isley, CEO of the TDA’s staff and day-to-day operations, noted that hotel occupancy had increased to 75% in September. That was over 73% in the “benchmark” year 2019 and 60% for September 2020 during the pandemic, Isley said.
Vacation rentals were 64% in September 2019, then rose to 74% in 2020, and fell back to 70% last month.
But this year hotel occupancy was even lower than in 2019. At that time, an average of 73% of the rooms were occupied from January to September. In the same nine months in 2020, the occupancy rate was 45%. This year it was 66%.
“It’s still down on the benchmark year 2019,” said Isley. “So something to keep in mind as we are seeing really solid numbers on the revenue side … both in terms of hotel income and the continued growth in vacation rentals.”
Isley did not report vacation rental occupancy during this period, nor did he talk about the impact of new hotel rooms or vacation rentals on occupancy.
Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government, and other news. He has written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police violence. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription at civil time.
