Houston hotel rates, month by month
| Month | Avg. nightly rate | vs. Houston average |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | $119 | -12% |
| Feb | $135 | -1% |
| Mar | $174 | +28% |
| Apr | $146 | +7% |
| May | $139 | +2% |
| Jun | $141 | +4% |
| Jul | $134 | -1% |
| Aug | $129 | -5% |
| Sep | $131 | -4% |
| Oct | $135 | -1% |
| Nov | $129 | -5% |
| Dec | $114 | -16% |
What the curve means for planners
Hotel rates in Houston move with the calendar, but not violently. The spread between the cheapest and priciest months is 34%. The floor is December at $114 a night, 16% below the city average of $136.
March is the month to watch, averaging $174, or 28% above typical. If an offsite or a recurring project has any date flexibility, steering it away from March is a straightforward saving; forcing it all the way into December matters less.
Most teams can reduce this market to one rule of thumb. Avoid the peak, and treat the rest of the year as roughly interchangeable.
Why do hotel prices in Houston, TX move this way?
The numbers are data. What follows is the story we think fits them.
One event almost certainly bends this curve: the March peak lines up with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which runs for weeks and absorbs hotel inventory across the metro. The rest of the year is level for a market this size, resting on energy-sector and medical-center business travel, with the usual December trough.
How Houston compares
At $136 a night, Houston, TX ranks 30 of 50 major U.S. markets by average hotel rate, 8% below the $148 median of the 50 markets in this dataset.
| Similar-priced market | Avg. nightly rate | Rank of 50 |
|---|---|---|
| Norfolk, VA | $136 | 31 |
| Baltimore, MD | $135 | 32 |
| Kansas City, MO | $137 | 29 |
Questions people ask
How much does a hotel cost in Houston?
Hotels in Houston, TX average $136 per night, based on 7M 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 $114 in December to $174 in March.
What is the cheapest month for hotels in Houston?
December is the cheapest month for hotels in Houston, TX, averaging $114 per night, which is 16% below the city's $136 average.
What is the most expensive month for hotels in Houston?
March is the most expensive month for hotels in Houston, TX, averaging $174 per night, 28% above the city's $136 average.
When should I book a hotel in Houston?
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 Houston, TX, that means aiming for December and avoiding March 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.