Silicon Valley Hotel Outlook: Reliance on Tech Industry in 2020

Tech companies were among the first employers to cancel meetings and halt travel as news of COVID-19 emerged from China. After first restricting international travel in February, most companies had restricted nonessential domestic travel by early March. Amazon and Facebook were conducting job interviews by video calls, and Twitter issued work-from-home orders well before counties issued shelter-in-place orders on March 16. With Silicon Valley hotels allowed to serve only essential workers, occupancy in the market dove to 16.3% in April, and averaged 33% for the 12 months ending February 2021. Demand was reduced by 59%, and rates were slashed in half, resulting in average RevPAR of $34.60.