While travel brings so many people joy, those who do it frequently know that the rush of booking a trip to a new destination is often tempered by the price of the hotel.
Accommodation accounts for up to 40% of the trip cost for the average traveler, Hotel News Resource indicates. In fact, creeping increases in the price of a room in the U.S. — 5.1% year over year in May, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — are discouraging many from traveling at all.
But in some parts of the world, hotel prices have seen significant drops. According to the annual 2026 Hotel Price Index released by travel booking platform Hotels.com, the biggest drops this year were 31% in the Italian coastal town of Alassio and 25% in the German city of Leipzig.
Which cities are seeing the biggest drop in hotel prices in 2026
In both cases, the prices reflect an adjustment from a sudden spike in popularity in the previous year, as visitor numbers stabilized to reflect actual demand.
In the U.S., Hotels.com booking data showed the biggest drop (27%) in hotel rates at Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, alongside respective decreases of 13% in Burlington, Vermont; 10% in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; 10% in Las Vegas; and 9% in Bozeman, Montana.
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Internationally, the biggest drops after the two front-runners were recorded in Vietnam’s Hanoi at 22%, England’s Bournemouth at 16%, Scotland’s Dundee at 15%, Mendoza in Argentina at 14%, Menton in France at 14%, and Cádiz in Spain at 13%.
The numbers represent overall prices throughout the year rather than specific rates during times of the year that may be more or less popular.
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Hotel prices are the most expensive in these cities right now: Hotels.com report
The average night at a five-star hotel booked through the platform cost $250 USD globally and $370 per night in the U.S. In expensive cities such as New York and Seattle, that number goes up to averages of $332 and $400 per night, respectively.
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“With increasing volatility in travel prices this summer, fuel costs may be dominating the conversation, but hotel prices are where travelers are making real trade-offs,” Melanie Fish, vice president of Global PR for Hotels.com, said in a statement on the study. “Travelers may be feeling the squeeze, but they’re also getting smarter.”
According to the report’s findings, “getting smarter” comes down to money-saving moves such as booking their stays on Sundays instead of Fridays and choosing hotels with breakfast to save money on eating out.
Use of the Hotels.com “budget” filter for finding less expensive options has also, according to the platform, surged by nearly 1,800% from 2026 to 2025 in one of the clearest indications ever that travelers are increasingly looking to bring down the total cost of their stay.
Use of the “rewards” filter also jumped by 820% among travelers using points and membership benefits to score free travel or reduce their final bill.
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