The curse has been broken. The Chicago Cubs finally won a World Series, securing the championship in 10th inning of game 7. Hats off to the Cleveland Indians who had a fantastic run throughout the month of October.
With this World Series being so significant to Chicago Cub fans [and also Cleveland Indian fans] around the United States, STR (parent company of Hotel News Now) decided to dive into both the markets to see who in the hotel industry benefitted more from the World Series.
Demand
First, we took a look at the percent change in demand for hotel rooms in those markets. Every game had an impact of more than 25% demand increase except for game 5 in Chicago, which saw demand decline by about 0.4%. Game 5 was on a Sunday night and the Indians had a 3-1 lead on the Cubs. It appears that Chicago fans weren’t as willing to spend a lot of money and take off work Monday to see the Cubs potentially lose the series. Additionally, game 5 was the day before Halloween, which typically sees reduced travel, as our recent analysis showed.
While games 3 and 4 in Chicago saw the highest hotel demand growth, it appears Cleveland actually saw more demand growth over the entire series.
ADR
Next, we examined absolute average daily rate. In Cleveland, games 6 and 7 made the biggest impact with the highest performing ADR growth rates in the series. However, games 3 and 4 in Chicago had the highest absolute ADR in the series.
The Cleveland market received the benefit of a steady increase in ADR percent change at around an average of 35% each game. When the Cubs had their parade (Friday, 4 November), hoteliers took advantage of the estimated 5 million people all around the U.S. who wanted to be a part of history. For the seventh largest gathering in human history, hoteliers were able to achieve the highest absolute ADRs for the entire series at $164 on the day of the parade. People stayed in town for the weekend following the parade, which brought weekend demand growth up to 15% and rate up 25%.
Both markets were big winners for the 2016 World Series. While Chicago took home the Commissioner’s Trophy, it appears that Cleveland actually won the hotel battle with demand and rate growth higher than Chicago.
This article represents an interpretation of data collected by STR, parent company of HNN. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.