Orange County Hospitality Market Report

Market positioned to log one of the nation’s highest occupancy rates. Despite the prospects of a recessionary period and lagging international travel, Orange County’s hospitality sector outlook remains optimistic. Hotel demand improved substantially last year around Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center — representing nearly 40 percent of metro room inventory — as the area welcomed an estimated 25.5 million visitors. A 2023 convention calendar featuring roughly 45 events, each supporting more than 1,000 room nights, indicates that the city may record a similar visitor volume this year. On a broader scale, a potential softening in Southern California households’ discretionary budgets may influence more families to vacation closer to home, a boon for area hotels given the metro’s location between Los Angeles and San Diego. Together, these dynamics will support the booking of 16.6 million room nights this year, on par with 2019. As such, occupancy is expected to exceed 70 percent across all chain scales, mirroring pre-pandemic conditions.