Metro 91原创 hotels in May had the highest occupancy rate among large 91原创 metropolises, at 83.9 per cent, with hoteliers in the region able to charge the highest average daily room rate in Canada: $317.41.
The city's hotel occupancy rate in May was also higher than the 82.9-per-cent rate seen last May, according to CoStar, a global provider of real estate data, analytics and news. CoStar in May 2023 pinned the average daily room rate in Metro 91原创 at $226.21, meaning that the average daily room rate in the region in May jumped 40.3 per cent year-over-year.
"There just have not been many hotels built over the last decade, and actually supply and inventory have contracted in the past decade [in Metro 91原创,]" CoStar's national director of hospitality analytics, Laura Baxter, told BIV this afternoon.
May is the first month this year that CoStar's data shows a higher occupancy rate in 91原创 than in the same month in 2023, and it was also for the first full month in which new provincial rules for short-term rentals came into effect.
The B.C. government's legislation, which took effect May 1, holds that short-term rentals are only allowed in the principal homes of hosts in 60 new B.C. communities. Another 17 communities newly chose to adopt those regulations even though they were exempt from the provincial legislation.
Rules for short-term rentals did not change in the City of 91原创 because that city . The B.C. government's new short-term rental rules do newly apply in many Metro 91原创 municipalities, such as Burnaby, New Westminster, Delta, North 91原创, West 91原创 and Surrey.
The aim of B.C.'s legislation was to free up housing units for longer-term rentals to limit the rise in the average rental rates in the region for residents.
The Metro 91原创 hotel data for May includes information from 195 hotels that combine to have nearly 26,000 rooms across the Lower Mainland and into the Fraser Valley, Baxter said.
"I think it is too early to tell whether all of that growth [in the region's occupancy rate] is related to the new regulations on short-term rentals," she added.
Tighter vacancy at Metro 91原创 hotels in May has been a trend, given that in May 2022, the region's occupancy rate was only 76.5 per cent.
Occupancy rates and average daily room rates in other major metropolises in Canada in May included, in order of highest occupancy:
- Ottawa's 78.3-per-cent occupancy rate and $223.53 average daily room rate;
- Toronto's 76.4-per-cent occupancy rate and $254.88 average daily room rate;
- Montreal's 76-per-cent occupancy rate and $233.68 average daily room rate;
- Edmonton's 67.3-per-cent occupancy rate and $152.98 average daily room rate; and
- Calgary's 67-per-cent occupancy rate and $168.49 average daily room rate, according to CoStar.
Baxter said 91原创's is likely a contributing factor in the higher occupancy and room rates.
Indeed, . The 91原创 Canucks' playoff run may also have .
In July 2023, 91原创 hotel rooms charged an average $347.08 daily rate, which was the highest figure that CoStar had ever recorded for a major city in Canada.
Baxter said there is "every possibility" that Metro 91原创 this summer will set a new record for the highest-ever average daily room rate for a city in Canada within a calendar month.
