As someone who studies the hotel industry for a living, every once in awhile you come across some interesting data points that seem worth mentioning. While most industry observers recognize the effects of holidays, both religious and secular, on hotel industry performance, some have more interesting effects than others.   

Perhaps the holiday with the greatest potential effect on the United States hotel industry performance is Valentine’s Day. Depending on which day of the week this “lovers’ holiday” falls, it can have either a very positive effect on U.S. hotels occupancy or just be another day in February. (Halloween has a similar, but opposite effect. As long as Halloween does not fall on a weekend, all’s good for hotels. We can analyze this phenomenon in the fall).

During the past 11 years (this is as far back as STR has daily hotel performance) Valentine’s Day has fallen on a weekend day three times. The other eight times it has fallen on a school night, meaning Sunday through Thursday. On average, when Valentine’s Day falls on either a Friday or Saturday, the industry sells an additional 858,000 rooms over another day of the week—taking industry occupancy from the 59% range to the 77% range! That’s more than 30% more guests that will be purchasing hotel rooms when 14 February falls on the weekend.
 
Assuming, for ease of calculation purposes, that an average hotel room costs US$100/night, the resulting revenue gain for the industry of having Valentine’s day on a weekend is in excess of US$850 million. This assumes neither incremental increase in the room rate (which would almost certainly happen), nor the additional spend many of those guests will make on hotel amenities to make their evening a bit more special. Champagne, chocolates and strawberries, anyone?

Now the reasons for this are all too obvious. If Valentine’s Day does not fall on a weekend, people have to work the next morning, kids have school, routines will be disrupted, etc. So as a matter of course, roses, chocolate and maybe a dinner out have to suffice. Whoever said there is no romance during the week, unfortunately, may actually be right! At least not enough to go out of your way and spend the night at a hotel. 

Since traditional marketing messages will likely fall onto deaf ears, what can the industry do? Well, the short answer is: not much. However, there is one possibility, albeit a very unlikely one, and that is to encourage our esteemed leaders in Washington, D.C., to declare either the second or third Saturday of every February as Valentine’s Day!  Come to think of it, the third Saturday would be better as it would then be tied to President’s Day and a good time can be had by all. As one of my brothers would say, “That would be a home run, buddy.”