Every City Has a Season

Four kinds of city

Almost every market in this data behaves like one of four types. Once you know which one you are booking, you know what to do about it.

Weather

The curve follows the thermometer. Summer or fall is the peak and deep winter is the sale.

Boston runs $166 in January and $458 in October, a 2.75 times difference between months.

Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee

Backwards

Same logic, inverted. Everyone wants them when the weather is good, so good weather is the expensive part.

Phoenix peaks at $246 during spring training and falls to $96 in August.

Phoenix, Miami, Tampa, Palm Springs, Orlando

One-week

Flat all year until one event lands and the whole month looks broken. One event is doing all the work.

Omaha sits near $100 until the College World Series takes June to $182.

Omaha, Indianapolis, Albuquerque, New Orleans

Flat

They ignore all of the above. Steady business demand, no season worth planning around.

Los Angeles moves 13% across the entire year. Dallas 19%, El Paso 10%.

Los Angeles, Dallas, El Paso

In a seasonal city the gap between the best and worst month runs 40 to 64%. Nothing else about the trip is that easy to change. Two markets refuse the model altogether: New York, which is expensive in December and September for unrelated reasons, and San Francisco, which answers to a conference calendar instead of the weather.

Pick your city

Fifty markets, twelve months. Pick yours and the rest fade back.

In Boston, January runs 64% cheaper than October. Same market, different month.

Cheapest January · $166/nightPriciest October · $458/nightRate observations 2.1M

Cities

Each faint line is one of the 50 markets. Selected cities are drawn heavier and labelled. Hover any point for the rate. A hollow ring marks a month with a known event behind the spike. Click a row in the table below to load that city here.

Go here, not there

If the dates are locked but the city is not, which is most off-sites, sales kickoffs, and training weeks, this is where to point it.

January01

GoSan Diego$157

At its floor, before the convention calendar starts.

SkipPalm Springs$241

Desert high season, so you are bidding against leisure.

February02

GoLas Vegas$143

Its quiet stretch between the big shows.

SkipMiami$267

Snowbird peak.

March03

GoDallas–Fort Worth$127

Flat market, and close to everyone can get there direct.

SkipPhoenix$246

Spring training owns the city.

April04

GoAustin$169

SXSW is gone and the city has its rooms back.

SkipWashington, D.C.$315

Cherry blossoms on top of everyone else’s spring board meeting.

May05

GoDenver$169

Ahead of the summer peak, and the airport connects to everything.

SkipBoston$390

Graduation weekends take the whole month.

June06

GoLas Vegas$132

Its yearly floor, and nobody is outside anyway.

SkipChicago$319

Its most expensive month of the year.

July07

GoOrlando$117

The convention capital near its summer floor.

SkipSan Diego$292

Comic-Con.

August08

GoWashington, D.C.$179

Congressional recess empties the city.

SkipSeattle$272

Its one reliably nice month, and everyone knows it.

September09

GoMiami$128

Its floor by a wide margin.

SkipNew York$458

The September surge, when every company books at once.

October10

GoPhoenix$159

The heat breaks before the rates catch up.

SkipBoston$458

Leaf season on top of conference season.

November11

GoAtlanta$127

The world’s busiest airport, near its yearly floor.

SkipPhiladelphia$197

A fall bump, not a peak. The highest number here in November, without a real story behind it.

December12

GoSan Francisco$129

Its floor, and the conference calendar is done for the year.

SkipNew York$541

The most expensive city-month in the dataset.

Learnings

Hotel prices in one line

Weather sets the baseline. Events punch holes in it. A few big markets ignore both.

Time the seasonal cities, calendar-check the spikes, and book the flat ones whenever.

01Worse weather, better rates

The colder the city, the cheaper the winter. Boston falls to $166 in January and hits $458 in October, a 2.75 times difference between months.
The Sun Belt runs it backwards. Phoenix peaks at $246 in spring-training season, then melts to $96 by August, and Miami bottoms out at $128 in September.

02Fall is rush hour, where rooms are already expensive

Summer is the more common peak: 22 of the 50 markets top out in June or July. But the eight that peak in October are the pricier ones, averaging a $140 floor against $120 for the summer group.
So fall is rush hour in the markets you are most likely to get sent to. Boston tops out at $458 in October, and New York touches $458 in September on its way to $541 in December.

03A few events own the calendar

Omaha sits near $100 all year, then jumps to $182 the month the College World Series comes to town, one week wearing a month costume. Albuquerque does it in October for the Balloon Fiesta, San Diego in July for Comic-Con, Indianapolis in May for the 500.
When a month looks broken, check the calendar before you blame the city. The months on either side of these spikes sit far closer to the city's baseline than to the spike itself.

04Some cities never move

El Paso (10%), Los Angeles (13%) and Dallas (19%) barely budge all year. Steady business demand keeps the curve flat, so book them whenever and spend the effort somewhere else.
New York is the loud exception. It swings 64%, holds the highest floor in the dataset at $196, and owns the single priciest cell at $541 in December.

05Timing can be worth half

In seasonal cities, picking the right month is worth 40 to 64%. Boston and New York both spread 64%, Phoenix 61%, Chicago 60%.
No promo code or negotiation is involved. It is a calendar decision you can make months in advance.

Where timing matters

Every market placed on the map, colored by whether its cheapest month falls in cold weather or warm, sized by the gap between its cheapest and priciest month. Forty of these fifty cities are cheapest somewhere between November and February. The ten that run backwards cluster in the Sun Belt and are marked in red.

Cheapest in a cold month (40) Cheapest in a warm month (10) Dot size = spread between cheapest and priciest month. Click a dot to load it above.

The same fifty markets, filed under whichever month each one bottoms out in. Two thirds land in December or January, and five months of the year are the cheapest month for nobody at all. That is the market's shape, not a gap in the data: winter holidays and late-summer heat set the price floors almost everywhere, so the months in between never get to be anyone's cheapest.

January23

February1

March0

No city in this dataset is cheapest in March

April0

No city in this dataset is cheapest in April

May0

No city in this dataset is cheapest in May

June1

July0

No city in this dataset is cheapest in July

August7

September2

October0

No city in this dataset is cheapest in October

November2

December14

Weather Backwards One-week Flat Click any city to load it in the chart above

The bigger patterns

Four things this dataset says that a national average would hide.

The worst month to visit is the best month to book

Forty of these fifty markets are cheapest in a cold month, and thirty-seven bottom out in December or January specifically. The pattern is consistent enough that the exceptions are worth naming individually: Phoenix, Palm Springs, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, New Orleans, Austin, Las Vegas, Jacksonville and Washington, D.C.

Nine of those ten are hot places where summer does what winter does everywhere else. The tenth is Washington, and its reason has nothing to do with weather at all.

Not one of these 50 markets is cheapest in spring

Across all fifty markets, zero are cheapest in March, April, May, July or October. Every city's floor lands in one of the other seven months, and two thirds of them land in December or January.

Spring is the quiet consensus peak. It is nobody's bargain and it is a lot of cities' most expensive stretch: thirteen markets top out in March, April or May. If a trip has to move, moving it into spring is the one direction that reliably costs more.

Where you go beats when you go

Timing is worth up to 64%. Choosing a different city is worth up to 6.2 times. Oklahoma City in December is $87 a night. New York in December is $541. Same month, different markets.

Put more sharply, thirty of these fifty markets have a most-expensive month that is still cheaper than New York's cheapest month. If the city is genuinely open, that one decision dominates everything else on this page.

The country has no season. Its cities have violent ones

Averaged across all fifty markets, the national curve swings 21%, from $138 in January to $174 in October. That is a mild, unremarkable shape.

It is also almost entirely an artifact. The Sun Belt's summer collapse cancels the Snow Belt's summer peak, and the aggregate comes out nearly flat while individual cities swing 60% and more. A national hotel index will tell you the market is calm. It is not calm anywhere in particular.

City by city, and why

The curves above have reasons behind them. Some are weather, some are one event on a calendar, and a few are neither.

New York$196 floor, $541 peak, 64%

New York holds two records at once: the highest floor in the dataset and the sharpest single-month jump in it. December at $541 is nearly double November's $352 and almost triple January's $196. Most cities run on one calendar. New York runs on three that overlap: a corporate calendar that restarts hard after Labor Day, a leisure calendar that peaks at the holidays, and a short deep-winter lull when both go quiet at once. None of it tracks the weather, which is why the city refuses every category on this page. And its cheapest month is still more expensive than thirty of these fifty cities ever get.

Omaha$95 floor, $182 peak, 48%

Omaha sits between $95 and $126 for eleven months of the year, then hits $182 in June. The College World Series has been played there every June since 1950 and runs about ten days.¹ The timing makes the tournament the most plausible driver of the June spike. June comes in at 1.48 times the average of May and July, the second-sharpest jump in the dataset behind New York's December.

Albuquerque$111 floor, $179 peak, 38%

Flat between $111 and $156 for eleven months, then $179 in October. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta runs nine days in early October and is the largest event of its kind in the world.² Structurally identical to Omaha: one event, one month, 1.43 times its neighbouring months, and eleven ordinary months on either side.

San Diego$156 floor, $292 peak, 47%

San Diego is otherwise a well-behaved coastal market that drifts between $156 and $231. July is $292. Comic-Con International takes place at the San Diego Convention Center for four days in July,³ and July lands about $70 above the months on either side of it.

New Orleans$124 floor, $231 peak, 46%

The only market here with an event peak and a weather peak that never touch. February at $231 overlaps with Mardi Gras season.⁴ October at $228 coincides with convention season and milder weather. Its floor is August at $124, when the heat and humidity empty the city out. Two separate reasons to avoid it, five months apart.

Indianapolis and Houstonthe same trick, quieter

Indianapolis runs flat and cheap until May, when the Indy 500 arrives near the end of the month.⁵ Houston does it in March, when the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo runs for about three weeks.⁶ Both calendars line up with the spikes, although the pricing data alone cannot prove causation.

Phoenix$96 floor, $246 peak, 61%

The most extreme inversion in the dataset. Two things stack in late winter: Cactus League spring training puts fifteen major league teams across ten Phoenix-area ballparks,⁷ and the weather is among the mildest in the country. Then it reaches 110 degrees and the city empties. Phoenix in August is $96, the cheapest big-market month in the entire set.

Palm Springs$158 floor, $369 peak, 57%

The purest curve in the set, running almost perfectly opposite to Boston's. Palm Springs is a resort market with very little year-round business demand to flatten it, so it does what the thermometer says and close to nothing else. March is $369. August is $158.

Washington, D.C.$179 floor, $317 peak, 44%

The one backwards city with little connection to heat. D.C. is cheapest in August, 44% below May, while Congress is in an extended district and state work period.⁸ That calendar is a plausible contributor to the dip, although the pricing data cannot isolate its effect.

Minneapolis$111 floor, $156 peak, 29%

Minneapolis swings less than Seattle or Chicago despite harder winters than either, which looks wrong until you know the city. Jack's read is the right one: downtown is connected by miles of enclosed skyway and the region's largest attraction is an indoor mall. Cold that does not actually stop anyone from doing business does not discount the rooms either.

Seattle$139 floor, $297 peak, 53%

The cleanest weather story in the dataset, with no event driving any of it. July is $297 and January is $139. Nine months of rain, two genuinely excellent ones, and pricing that reflects exactly that with no ambiguity at all.

Boston$166 floor, $458 peak, 64%

Two peaks that nearly tie, for unrelated reasons. May at $390 is graduation: greater Boston has dozens of colleges and commencement weekends stack through the month. October at $458 is leaf season landing on top of conference season. January is $166, and the resulting 64% spread ties New York for the widest here.

Chicago$127 floor, $319 peak, 60%

Unlike Phoenix, Chicago's peak is not only weather. McCormick Place is the largest convention center in North America and its calendar leans heavily on the warm months. Summer in Chicago is the nice season and the working season at once, which is how you get $319 in June against $127 in January.

Honolulu$169 floor, $211 peak, 23%

Never cheap and never really expensive. Honolulu swings only 23%, but its floor is $169, the third highest here. There is no drive-in market and no fast way to add rooms, so the floor stays high and the ceiling stays close to it. It is the one market where booking the cheap month saves you the least actual money.

Las Vegas$132 floor, $180 peak, 27%

Backwards, but not for the usual reason. Vegas is cheapest in June at $132 because of the heat, and most expensive in October at $180 because October is one of the heaviest convention months of the year. A conference market wearing a leisure market's clothes.

Austin$134 floor, $209 peak, 36%

Austin's peak is October, when Austin City Limits runs two weekends in Zilker Park⁹ and the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix runs at Circuit of the Americas.¹⁰ Its floor is August at $134, when it is 100 degrees and SXSW is seven months away in either direction.

Oklahoma City and El Pasothe two ends of boring

Oklahoma City holds the cheapest single cell in the dataset, $87 in December, and never crosses $111 all year. El Paso is the flattest market at 10% top to bottom. Both are steady working markets whose demand does not care what month it is. If you need a room and not a destination, this is what that looks like.

The full dataset

Median nightly rate by city and month of stay. Shading runs cheap to expensive within each row, and the yellow outline is that city’s cheapest month. Click any row to load it in the chart above, or sort by any column.

Market	Type & quick take	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Spread
Boston	WeatherWeather city: fall peaks at 2.75× January, winter is the sale.	$166	$186	$267	$331	$390	$368	$332	$314	$434	$458	$301	$187	64%
New York	Its ownIts own genre: swings 64%, and December ($541) is the priciest cell in the set.	$196	$202	$277	$335	$372	$327	$268	$273	$458	$429	$352	$541	64%
Phoenix	BackwardsInverse-weather: spring training peaks ($246), August melts to $96.	$177	$246	$246	$173	$131	$105	$98	$96	$118	$159	$161	$137	61%
Chicago	WeatherWeather city: winter is 60% off; summer–fall is one long peak.	$127	$139	$188	$204	$305	$319	$274	$280	$300	$293	$208	$154	60%
Palm Springs	BackwardsThe desert off-site capital: March hits $369, August falls to $158, the purest inverse-weather curve in the set.	$241	$288	$369	$359	$204	$171	$161	$158	$171	$198	$228	$204	57%
Norfolk	WeatherWeather city, beach edition: summer doubles; winter’s the sale.	$96	$99	$116	$129	$151	$178	$216	$194	$130	$123	$105	$101	56%
Seattle	WeatherWeather city: July doubles January ($297 vs $139), book Nov–Feb.	$139	$150	$159	$169	$213	$279	$297	$272	$253	$212	$165	$142	53%
Miami	BackwardsInverse-weather: February peaks ($267), September is half price ($128).	$233	$267	$258	$215	$179	$157	$149	$135	$128	$159	$176	$237	52%
Omaha	One-weekFlat, until the College World Series nearly doubles June ($182 vs ~$100).	$98	$106	$105	$110	$126	$182	$120	$115	$110	$111	$102	$95	48%
Milwaukee	WeatherWeather city: summer nearly doubles; December is the sale.	$109	$108	$117	$123	$132	$163	$194	$158	$136	$130	$114	$103	47%
San Diego	One-weekFlat-ish, until Comic-Con punches the July hole ($292 vs ~$190).	$157	$183	$189	$194	$202	$231	$292	$209	$195	$195	$171	$156	47%
New Orleans	One-weekEvent town: Mardi Gras February and festival October peak; late summer is the sale ($124).	$153	$231	$198	$205	$165	$134	$153	$124	$138	$228	$195	$152	46%
Denver	WeatherWeather city: June peaks ($221); deep winter is the floor.	$121	$139	$138	$166	$169	$221	$213	$194	$199	$182	$135	$121	45%
Nashville	WeatherWeather plus events: October peaks ($243); deep winter is the play.	$136	$152	$178	$197	$196	$215	$185	$195	$220	$243	$187	$146	44%
Washington, D.C.	BackwardsSpring peaks ($317 in May); August recess is 44% off ($179).	$196	$200	$303	$315	$317	$287	$223	$179	$290	$302	$224	$182	44%
Tampa	BackwardsInverse-weather: snowbird winter peaks; late summer ~40% less.	$199	$233	$224	$212	$167	$152	$143	$135	$135	$152	$159	$168	42%
Charleston	WeatherWeather city: spring peaks; deep winter is the window.	$123	$145	$199	$205	$208	$196	$195	$173	$164	$167	$152	$123	41%
Albuquerque	One-weekFlat, until Balloon Fiesta punches an October hole ($179 vs ~$120).	$111	$116	$127	$131	$134	$136	$131	$127	$134	$179	$117	$111	38%
Philadelphia	WeatherWeather city: May peaks; winter value.	$166	$169	$203	$222	$259	$244	$199	$183	$212	$246	$197	$162	37%
Austin	One-weekEvent town: October (ACL + F1) owns the peak ($209); late summer is the sale.	$145	$168	$190	$169	$159	$150	$142	$134	$166	$209	$164	$140	36%
San Francisco	Its ownConference calendar sets it: March and September swing; December’s the deal ($129).	$166	$166	$197	$159	$168	$169	$154	$152	$192	$176	$147	$129	35%
Houston	One-weekFlat, until the Rodeo punches a March hole. December floor.	$119	$135	$174	$146	$139	$141	$134	$129	$131	$135	$129	$114	34%
Cincinnati	FlatFlat-ish: mild summer peak, December floor.	$106	$108	$118	$139	$133	$152	$156	$142	$135	$125	$110	$104	33%
Orlando	BackwardsInverse-weather: convention winter peaks; late summer about a third off.	$132	$150	$143	$133	$120	$130	$117	$101	$101	$114	$121	$129	33%
Cleveland	WeatherWeather city, mild: July peaks, January floor.	$124	$124	$139	$146	$158	$173	$183	$173	$178	$158	$141	$128	32%
Indianapolis	One-weekFlat, until the Indy 500 punches a May hole.	$114	$107	$122	$133	$158	$140	$155	$125	$117	$134	$122	$112	32%
Pittsburgh	WeatherWeather city, mild: summer peaks, late-winter floor.	$131	$131	$134	$169	$180	$191	$156	$158	$172	$183	$150	$135	31%
Louisville	FlatFlat-ish: January floor; autumn edges the top.	$106	$134	$144	$147	$144	$127	$144	$124	$149	$141	$118	$110	29%
Minneapolis	WeatherWeather city, mild: July peak, December discount.	$114	$114	$125	$130	$137	$152	$156	$144	$141	$143	$122	$111	29%
Salt Lake City	WeatherGentle summer peak; December is the floor.	$125	$127	$141	$151	$154	$160	$143	$135	$148	$136	$121	$115	28%
Las Vegas	BackwardsRuns backwards: June is the floor ($132), October conferences peak ($180).	$158	$143	$159	$151	$161	$132	$135	$135	$156	$180	$154	$148	27%
Detroit	FlatFlat-ish with a fall lean; winter is the floor.	$168	$170	$170	$188	$214	$214	$218	$197	$212	$228	$171	$168	26%
Atlanta	FlatMostly flat; December floor. Book almost whenever.	$150	$147	$154	$159	$149	$155	$160	$142	$139	$151	$127	$120	25%
Portland	WeatherWeather city, gentle: July bump, winter floor.	$109	$118	$116	$120	$127	$143	$145	$139	$128	$125	$114	$109	25%
Kansas City	WeatherGentle summer bump; January floor.	$117	$123	$132	$146	$149	$153	$146	$134	$142	$146	$135	$125	24%
St. Louis	WeatherMild summer peak; winter value.	$129	$136	$161	$162	$161	$170	$167	$154	$156	$144	$142	$131	24%
Baltimore	WeatherGentle summer bump; winter value.	$118	$128	$127	$134	$147	$152	$146	$142	$144	$144	$125	$118	22%
Columbus	FlatSteady; May bump, winter floor.	$110	$110	$119	$119	$141	$128	$135	$127	$127	$127	$122	$110	22%
Jacksonville	FlatFlat-ish: spring bump, early-fall floor.	$119	$126	$142	$126	$127	$118	$121	$113	$111	$119	$118	$121	22%
Oklahoma City	FlatFlat, with the cheapest floor in the set ($87 in December).	$90	$90	$98	$102	$108	$111	$99	$97	$97	$93	$93	$87	22%
Savannah	One-weekMarch (St. Patrick’s) peaks; deep winter is the window.	$118	$137	$152	$149	$148	$148	$136	$126	$138	$144	$133	$121	22%
Honolulu	FlatIts own model: summer spikes, November is the local low, never truly cheap.	$182	$193	$178	$180	$180	$204	$211	$198	$184	$177	$169	$211	20%
Raleigh–Durham	FlatFlat: autumn bump, January floor.	$119	$125	$130	$135	$140	$143	$133	$130	$135	$148	$135	$129	20%
San Antonio	One-weekFlat and cheap; small spring (rodeo) bump, January floor.	$99	$122	$124	$118	$109	$122	$124	$107	$107	$117	$109	$106	20%
Dallas–Fort Worth	FlatFlat market: the smallest big-market swing. Book whenever.	$122	$123	$127	$129	$124	$139	$128	$121	$125	$130	$119	$112	19%
Sacramento	FlatFlat-ish: July bump, November floor.	$140	$140	$147	$148	$148	$159	$168	$159	$148	$166	$136	$137	19%
Charlotte	One-weekFlat, with a small May bump (race week).	$120	$126	$128	$133	$145	$139	$132	$129	$131	$137	$131	$125	17%
Memphis	FlatFlat and affordable; December floor.	$107	$112	$123	$118	$124	$118	$122	$117	$115	$117	$119	$103	17%
Los Angeles	FlatFlat market, ignores the model. ~$170 year-round.	$157	$169	$175	$169	$173	$174	$176	$168	$166	$181	$163	$162	13%
El Paso	FlatFlattest market in the set, 10% top to bottom. Book whenever.	$119	$123	$128	$126	$121	$130	$118	$123	$127	$128	$127	$117	10%

Questions people ask

How much does a hotel cost on average?

Across the 50 markets in this data, the median nightly rate business travelers saw ran from $138 in January to $174 in October, a national swing of only 21%. That number hides almost everything that matters. Individual cities swing anywhere from 10% to 64%, because the calm national average is really forty markets moving one way and ten moving the opposite way, canceling each other out.

When is the best time to book a hotel?

It depends entirely on the city, and by “when” we mean which month you stay, not how far ahead you book. Forty of these fifty cities are cheapest sometime between November and February. The other ten, mostly in the Sun Belt, are cheapest in summer instead. Pick your city in the chart above to see its actual pattern rather than guessing from a national rule of thumb.

Where does this data come from?

Every figure on this page comes from real searches on Engine, a travel platform companies use to book work trips. Each time someone searched, we recorded the lowest publicly available nightly rate shown for each hotel. Over two years that added up to 128,536,941 prices across 50 U.S. markets.

Are these the rates companies actually paid?

No. These are public shelf prices, meaning what the market quotes anyone who looks, not the negotiated rate a company pays through a hotel program or a travel platform. Real company rates typically sit below what is shown here, so treat this as a map of the visible market, not a receipt.

Why use the median instead of the average?

A straight average lets one very cheap or very expensive listing pull a whole city’s number around. We used the median, the true middle price across all qualifying searches, and excluded anything below $35 or above $2,000 a night before calculating, so data errors and outlier listings cannot distort a city’s result.

How we did this

To see how hotel prices move through the year in each major U.S. city, we analyzed the 128,536,941 hotel prices that business travelers saw when searching on Engine, a platform companies use to book work trips.

What we measured. Every data point is a real nightly hotel rate shown in a live search on Engine, meaning the prices companies see when planning a trip rather than the rates they ultimately paid. For each search we took the lowest nightly rate shown for a given hotel, so the figures reflect the best publicly available price a traveler would encounter.

Whose trips we looked at. We focused on planned travel, the way a company organizes an off-site or a conference trip rather than a last-minute booking. That means we included only searches made 10 to 180 days before check-in. We limited the data to business accounts and excluded internal, test, and promotional activity so the numbers reflect genuine corporate demand.

How we defined each city. We grouped hotels into metropolitan markets, then tightened each market to its principal city and any immediately relevant surrounding areas, specifically places that make up at least 10% of the market’s searches. This keeps a city’s number true to what people picture when they hear its name. “Denver” reflects Denver, not far-flung parts of its broader region like Aspen or Laramie, while genuinely connected areas are still included (Boston, for instance, includes Cambridge).

How we calculated the typical price. For each city and each month we report the median nightly rate across all qualifying searches, the middle price, rather than the average. The median prevents a handful of ultra-cheap or ultra-expensive listings from distorting the result. To further guard against data errors we excluded rates below $35 or above $2,000 per night before calculating. Seasonal patterns are pooled across multiple years (mid-2024 through mid-2026) to smooth out year-to-year noise.

A few caveats. These are advertised rates, not final booked prices, so they capture what the market looks like rather than any individual company’s negotiated savings. More heavily searched destinations carry proportionally more weight in the data. And because we combine multiple years, an unusually large one-off event can occasionally push a single city-month higher than a typical year. The event explanations on this page describe what sits on the calendar in a given month; they are our reading of why a curve moves, not a separate measurement.

Why we have this data

Every number here started as a real search: a company looking at a city, comparing rates, deciding whether to commit. We are one of the few places that sees the market at that moment rather than after the booking, so we published what it looks like.

Two years of this only covers two years. Some of these curves will hold and some are one unusual conference away from looking different next year. We will keep updating it.

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Every City
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