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Raleigh boutique occupancy uptick sign of things to come

For the past couple weekends, the Longleaf Hotel has been sold out. It's the first time the boutique hotel has been fully occupied since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state.

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By
Mark Boyle, WRAL reporter,
and
Kathy Hanrahan, Out
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RALEIGH, N.C. — For the past couple weekends, the Longleaf Hotel has been sold out. It's the first time the boutique hotel has been fully occupied since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state.

"We have reached capacity a couple of weekends in a row. Most recently this past weekend we were able to reach 100 percent," Longleaf general manager Tim Rogers said.

Longleaf Hotel opened on North Dawson Street in downtown Raleigh just a few weeks before the pandemic led Gov. Roy Cooper to issue a stay-at-home order.

Across the state, boutique hotels like Longleaf could be seeing an increase in business as leisure travel starts to increase as people are vaccinated for COVID-19.

Visit Raleigh estimates that leisure travel should be back on track by fall of this year.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association's recent State of the Hotel Industry report for 2021 found that 56 percent of Americans said they were likely to travel for leisure this year, with 48 percent saying that their willingness to travel is tied to vaccination in some way.

A Travel Sentiment Survey from Longwoods International research firm is even more encouraging, finding that 81 percent of Americans plan to travel in the next six months. This is the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic a year ago.

Business travel across the country is expected to take longer to return to pre-pandemic levels. Visit Raleigh expects business travel to return by 2022.

The State of the Hotel Industry report estimates that the lodging industry will be among one of the last to recover from the pandemic, noting that the "impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry so far has been nine times that of 9/11."

Overall travel is not expected to return to 2019 levels until 2024, according to the report.

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