Americans Are Set To Ditch Hotels For Log Cabins This Labor Day Weekend 

Americans will be ditching hotels and resorts, along with popular travel destinations in major US cities this upcoming Labor Day weekend, seeking refuge in secluded lake homes or mountain cabins or homes in rural communities as the virus pandemic continues to rage, reported Yahoo Finance. 

The shift in travel to rural communities has been absolutely devastating for major metropolitan areas that heavily rely on tourism. Hotel bookings are down 66% compared to this time last year, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Major travel destinations from Oahu, Hawaii; Orlando, Florida; Miami, Florida; New York, New York; and San Francisco, California have seen unprecedented declines in travel and will see further drops this holiday weekend.

The virus pandemic isn’t the only reason why some folks will not vacation in metro areas. There are compounding issues such as depressionary unemployment, social unrest, and surging violent crime that has deterred people not just from traveling to but also triggered a mass exodus of city-dwellers who now are packing up their bags and moving permanently to suburbia. What’s also supercharging the exodus from cities is remote working. 

Over the last six months, despite the pandemic led to nationwide lockdowns causing mass Airbnb cancellations, triggering a collapse in rental income for hosts – the company was forced to bail out Superhosts with company funds –  there have been over 200,000 new hosts who have recently had their first bookings. Bookings, in a post-pandemic world, have surged across remote areas.  

“Meanwhile, high-density urban centers now make up approximately 20% of Labor Day trips this year, dropping from 40% over the same weekend in 2019,” Airbnb said. 

Top trending places on Airbnb this weekend include Hilton Head Island and Charleston, South Carolina; Big Bear Lake and Palm Springs, California; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Fredericksburg, Texas.

Travel trends are quickly shifting this holiday weekend, from staying at hotels and resorts in popular metro areas to now rural communities for a handful of reasons mentioned above. This trend will persist for the remainder of the year and spillover into 2021.

Readers might be wondering what are the direct consequences of these travel shifts?

The answer could be found in our latest piece titled “Hedge Funds Start Piling Into “The Big Short 3.0,”” as we note, CMBX 9, with its outlier exposure to hotels, could be ready for further delcines.