Chicago hotel rates, month by month
| Month | Avg. nightly rate | vs. Chicago average |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | $127 | -45% |
| Feb | $139 | -40% |
| Mar | $188 | -19% |
| Apr | $204 | -12% |
| May | $305 | +31% |
| Jun | $319 | +37% |
| Jul | $274 | +18% |
| Aug | $280 | +20% |
| Sep | $300 | +29% |
| Oct | $293 | +26% |
| Nov | $208 | -11% |
| Dec | $154 | -34% |
What the curve means for planners
Few line items move as much across the year as a hotel bill in Chicago. The spread between the floor and the peak is 60%.
January is the floor at $127 a night, 45% below the $233 average, while June peaks at $319, 37% above it.
If the destination is fixed but the dates are not, this is the market where it pays to schedule around the curve. Moving a multi-night group stay out of June changes the total more than most rate negotiations will.
Why do hotel prices in Chicago, IL move this way?
Treat the table as fact and this section as informed opinion.
This looks like a convention-calendar curve. Rates surge from May through September, peaking in June where the big trade-show season sits, then fall hard once lakefront winter arrives, leaving January as the floor. The obvious suspect is convention-center scheduling plus weather, in that order.
How Chicago compares
At $233 a night, Chicago, IL ranks 4 of 50 major U.S. markets by average hotel rate, 57% above the $148 median of the 50 markets in this dataset.
| Similar-priced market | Avg. nightly rate | Rank of 50 |
|---|---|---|
| Palm Springs, CA | $229 | 5 |
| Washington, D.C. | $252 | 3 |
| Philadelphia, PA | $205 | 6 |
Questions people ask
How much does a hotel cost in Chicago?
Hotels in Chicago, IL average $233 per night, based on 4.9M publicly available rates observed in searches on Engine between May 2024 and April 2026. These are par rates, meaning the cheapest public price offered at the time of each search, not negotiated or booked rates. Monthly averages range from $127 in January to $319 in June.
What is the cheapest month for hotels in Chicago?
January is the cheapest month for hotels in Chicago, IL, averaging $127 per night, which is 45% below the city's $233 average.
What is the most expensive month for hotels in Chicago?
June is the most expensive month for hotels in Chicago, IL, averaging $319 per night, 37% above the city's $233 average.
When should I book a hotel in Chicago?
The rates on this page are advance-purchase public rates, observed in searches made 10 to 180 days before check-in, so the bigger lever is which month you stay rather than how far ahead you book. For Chicago, IL, that means aiming for January and avoiding June when dates are flexible. Our full study, Every City Has a Season, covers how timing plays out across all 50 markets.
This page is one market from a 50-city study of how hotel prices move through the year.
How we did this
The figures on this page come from the 128,536,941 hotel prices that business travelers saw when searching on Engine, a platform companies use to book work trips, across 50 U.S. markets over roughly two years (May 2024 to April 2026).
What we measured. Every data point is a par rate, meaning the cheapest publicly available nightly rate a hotel offered at the moment of a live search. These are the prices companies see while planning a trip, not Engine's negotiated rates and not the prices ultimately booked. Real corporate rates typically sit below what is shown here.
Whose trips we looked at. We focused on planned travel and included only searches made 10 to 180 days before check-in, limited to business accounts, with internal, test, and promotional activity excluded.
A few caveats. These are advertised rates, not final booked prices. Monthly figures pool multiple years to smooth year-to-year noise, so an unusually large one-off event can occasionally push a single city-month higher than a typical year.
Data analysis by Jack Swiatoschik. Written by Alec Hollingsworth. Reviewed by Engine's data team.