The shock you got when you looked at your hotel bill and saw what the hotel charged you for parking was fully justified. Parking rates have indeed gone up and become a profitable source of revenue for many hotels.

In fact, on average for all hotels in a sample studied by CBRE, parking revenue rose 103.1% from pre-pandemic 2019 levels, while hotel revenue was only at 95.9%. And more hotels have cottoned on to this bonanza: 20.4% in 2022 compared to 17% in 2019 reported parking revenue. 

From the hotels' perspective, charging more for parking has helped make up for lagging occupancy levels and depressed guest counts post-Covid, CBRE noted. The sample of 520 hotels that reported parking revenue skewed toward full-service hotels located in urban areas. They averaged 324 rooms, 65.4% occupancy—14.6% lower than in 2019, and an average daily rate of $245.25. Revenue per available room in 2022 was $157.05, down from the $163.07 reported in 2019.