Party and event rental revenue still down more than 50 percent but improvement continues

Surveys of American Rental Association (ARA) members continue to show significant revenue loss for party and event rental companies, but the numbers improved once again in July. This continues a month-to-month improvement that has been seen throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. For July 2020, ARA members in party and event rental report an average of 52.3 percent revenue decline compared to July 2019. This comes after a 55.6 percent drop in June, a 79.8 percent drop in May and a 91.2 percent drop in April compared to the same months in 2019.

On the equipment rental side, which covers construction and general tool rental, revenue remains fairly consistent, but it did drop an average of 4.6 percent for July 2020 compared to July 2019. This comes after a June report of revenue increasing by an average of nearly 1 percent.

In another question on the survey, members have been asked whether the industry is getting better, getting worse or staying the same on a survey-to-survey basis. While the amount of respondents saying “getting better” was increasing into June, it has fallen since then. Along with that, those saying “getting worse” was decreasing into June, but has risen significantly since then. The curve of these answers is very similar to the number of COVID-19 cases being seen in the U.S. and in many other countries.

Oddly enough, the survey date with the highest amount of “getting better” and lowest amount of “getting worse” responses was on June 8. This is also the date the U.S. recorded its lowest number of COVID-19 cases since late March, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Beginning on June 9, the cases began to rise steadily which halted some economic openings in states and local areas. This rise has correlated to feelings throughout the equipment and event rental industry.

Members were also asked when they see their revenues returning to pre-pandemic levels. This paints a picture that recovery will still take some time. For equipment rental, nearly 63 percent say it will be at least 2021 before their revenues return to pre-pandemic levels, and more than 96 percent of those in party and event rental are in the same timeframe. It is a bleaker picture for some as 26 percent of those in party and event rental say it will be 2022 or later before they return to that level of revenue and 13 percent in equipment rental share that same view of 2022 or later.

ARA will continue to distribute these surveys to members to get an accurate view of the industry during to the pandemic. To view this week’s survey results, click here for party and event rental and click here for equipment rental.