Global hotel rates saw a “sharp acceleration” during the first quarter of 2026, with prices up by 7.2 per cent year-on-year to an average of $189 per night, according to the latest analysis by hotel booking specialist HotelHub.
Europe recorded an even steeper increase in hotel rates during the quarter, with a 13.9 per cent year-on-year rise, which saw average rates jump from $154 in Q1 of 2025 to $175 this year.
The quarterly HotelHub Index analysed 1.78 million bookings made through the firm’s platforms between January and March.
HotelHub’s data found that the increase in rates was “even more pronounced” in some European cities, with Milan’s average rate rising 29 per cent from $195 to $253 as the Italian city played host to the Winter Olympics during the quarter.
Other European destinations to see steep rises in Q1 included Stockholm with a 22.1 per cent year-on-year increase to $195 and Amsterdam where prices were up by 18.6 per cent to $253.
In comparison, London’s hotel rates rose by 7.9 per cent to $324 during the quarter, while Paris recorded an 11.4 per cent increase to $246 and Berlin’s rates soared by 15 per cent to $186.
HotelHub said that US rates rose by 7.6 per cent year on year to an average of $226 per night, which was “in line” with the global average increase. But it also noted that bookings to the US through its platforms were down by 12 per cent compared with Q1 of 2025.
The impact of the Iran war, which started on 28 February, caused bookings to the United Arab Emirates to plummet by nearly 77 per cent in March, compared with the same month in 2025. Average hotel rates in Dubai fell to $222 per night during March, compared with $307 in February.
But other destinations saw higher year-on-year bookings in Q1, including Canada with a 5.2 per cent rise, Australia (up by 4.3 per cent) and China (up 4.2 per cent), according to HotelHub’s data.
Booking trends
Despite global hotel rate increases, HotelHub said its data does not show any signs that business travellers have been downgrading on the quality of properties they are staying in.
The proportion of five-star hotels being booked rose slightly year on year, by 0.15 percentage points to 12.13 per cent, while four-star properties accounted for 44.9 per cent of bookings in Q1 of 2026, up from 44.6 per cent in the same quarter of 2025.
HotelHub added that average length of stay had reduced from 2.5 days in Q1 of 2025 to 2.43 days in Q1 of 2026, which had helped to limit the increase in average spend per booking to 4.6 per cent ($461).
Paul Raymond, HotelHub’s chief commercial officer, said:“The growing instability over the last few months has not produced favourable conditions for business travellers and, while this dataset only covers the first few weeks of the latest hostilities in the Middle East, it seems unlikely that things will get easier in Q2.
“However, the real takeaway here is how travellers are negotiating the current situation. The business world is still moving, it’s just finding savvier ways to make budgets stretch – whether that’s compressing trips into fewer days or shifting to more affordable destinations.”