Friday, Sept. 1, proved to be the busiest travel day over Labor Day weekend, with 2.7 million air passengers recorded by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
Jan Freitag, CoStar's national director of hospitality market analytics, said many flyers were taking advantage of the holiday weekend before the start of the school year in many districts across the U.S.
"In addition, some travelers who are not as tied to school calendars may have traveled to resort destinations to take advantage of smaller crowds," he added. "Since Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer in the U.S., the coming months are expected to see an uptick in corporate transient and group travel."
Freitag expects this should lift midweek air travel and hotel demand.
Return-to-Office Efforts Aren't Materializing
Freitag said in the past three years, there have been concerted efforts from corporations and businesses to get office workers back to their desks after Labor Day.
However, these efforts so far have not yielded results above a roughly 50% office occupancy rate, he added, citing Kastle Systems data.
"It will be important to monitor if workers return to the office in stronger numbers now that more return-to-office policies are in place and enforced," Freitag said. "This in turn may influence midweek air travel and hotel stay patterns. However, if the past three years are an indicator, it remains questionable if more workers will return to the office."