Philadelphia hotel rates, month by month
| Month | Avg. nightly rate | vs. Philadelphia average |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | $166 | -19% |
| Feb | $169 | -18% |
| Mar | $203 | -1% |
| Apr | $222 | +8% |
| May | $259 | +26% |
| Jun | $244 | +19% |
| Jul | $199 | -3% |
| Aug | $183 | -11% |
| Sep | $212 | +3% |
| Oct | $246 | +20% |
| Nov | $197 | -4% |
| Dec | $162 | -21% |
What the curve means for planners
Month choice moves the bill in Philadelphia. The same room class costs $162 a night in December and $259 in May, a 37% spread.
Against the city average of $205, December runs 21% under and May runs 26% over. That is a large enough gap to change how many nights a fixed budget covers.
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 May changes the total more than most rate negotiations will.
Why do hotel prices in Philadelphia, PA move this way?
What follows is our best theory for the curve above, not something the data proves.
Philadelphia peaks in May, which we read as graduation season across the region's dense university cluster plus spring conference traffic, with a second high in October, likely the fall meeting season cresting. December and January are the floor. It is a two-season market with an academic accent.
How Philadelphia compares
At $205 a night, Philadelphia, PA ranks 6 of 50 major U.S. markets by average hotel rate, 39% above the $148 median of the 50 markets in this dataset.
| Similar-priced market | Avg. nightly rate | Rank of 50 |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle, WA | $204 | 7 |
| San Diego, CA | $198 | 8 |
| Detroit, MI | $193 | 9 |
Questions people ask
How much does a hotel cost in Philadelphia?
Hotels in Philadelphia, PA average $205 per night, based on 935K 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 $162 in December to $259 in May.
What is the cheapest month for hotels in Philadelphia?
December is the cheapest month for hotels in Philadelphia, PA, averaging $162 per night, which is 21% below the city's $205 average.
What is the most expensive month for hotels in Philadelphia?
May is the most expensive month for hotels in Philadelphia, PA, averaging $259 per night, 26% above the city's $205 average.
When should I book a hotel in Philadelphia?
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 Philadelphia, PA, that means aiming for December and avoiding May 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.