The U.S. hotel market is showing a broader rebound than travelers and travel buyers saw for much of the post-pandemic recovery, with fresh data indicating that demand gains are no longer limited to luxury properties and high-end leisure trips.
New industry reporting published June 25, citing CoStar data, showed U.S. hotel revenue per available room rising across every major chain scale on a trailing 10-week basis through mid-June. Luxury hotels are still leading the recovery, but upscale, mid-market and even motel segments are also posting gains. That matters because it suggests the lodging market is being supported by a wider mix of business travel, group demand, events and domestic leisure trips rather than one narrow pocket of affluent travelers.
For U.S. travelers, the practical message is straightforward: hotel pricing power is firming in more places, especially around midweek stays, event-heavy markets and summer travel corridors. The best deals may still exist, but they are less likely to appear automatically at the last minute in cities where business and group demand are coming back.
What Changed in the Hotel Data
The latest trigger is the breadth of the rebound. Skift reported that U.S. hotel RevPAR, a key industry measure combining occupancy and average daily rate, was up 6.7 percent year over year on a trailing 10-week average through June 13, according to CoStar. For the week ending June 20, the year-over-year increase reached 9.7 percent.
The strongest gains remain at the top end of the market, where luxury RevPAR was reported up 17.4 percent. But the important shift is that the improvement has moved down the chain scale: upscale hotels rose 9 percent, mid-market properties rose 3 percent and motels rose 1.7 percent in the reported period.
That is a different signal from the highly uneven recovery of the past several years, when luxury and upper-upscale hotels often outperformed while more price-sensitive segments lagged. A broader lodging recovery suggests more travelers are absorbing higher costs, more companies are authorizing trips and more events are filling rooms outside the most expensive hotel categories.
CoStar Had Already Raised Its 2026 Forecast
The fresh weekly momentum follows a more formal forecast upgrade from CoStar and Tourism Economics earlier this month. Their June U.S. hotel forecast raised expected 2026 RevPAR growth to 2.8 percent, up sharply from a previous projection of 0.6 percent.
The forecast said the first four-plus months of 2026 beat expectations, with U.S. RevPAR up 4.0 percent year to date through April and first-quarter RevPAR reaching a record high. It also pointed to a 2.0 percent year-over-year increase in U.S. hotel demand since the start of 2026.
One of the most important details for the travel industry is group demand. CoStar said group demand, defined as bookings of 10 or more room nights, grew 2.7 percent between February and April, with especially strong gains in secondary markets that host small and midsize events. That helps explain why the recovery is not simply a luxury-resort story or a World Cup story. Meetings, conferences, weddings, youth sports, corporate gatherings and regional events are all capable of tightening local hotel inventory.
Why Travelers May Feel It in Prices
Hotel demand can rise without every traveler seeing a dramatic rate spike, but stronger demand usually reduces the amount of discounting available in peak periods. CoStar’s forecast also noted that supply growth expectations for 2026 had been lowered to 0.4 percent. In plain terms, demand is improving while new hotel-room supply remains limited in many markets.
That combination gives hotel operators more confidence to hold rates, especially on dates when business travelers, event attendees and leisure visitors overlap. Travelers may notice this most on Monday-through-Thursday stays, in convention cities, near airports, around stadiums, and in destinations tied to major summer events.
The pattern is also consistent with the broader U.S. travel outlook. The U.S. Travel Association’s spring forecast projected total U.S. travel spending of $1.37 trillion in 2026, with domestic travel accounting for 87 percent of the total. Domestic leisure travel remains the strongest spending category, while domestic group travel is forecast to grow faster than business travel overall.
What This Means for U.S. Trip Planning
For leisure travelers, the hotel rebound is a reminder to compare trip costs early rather than assuming hotel prices will soften closer to departure. That is especially true for family trips, city breaks, sports travel and theme-park vacations where airfare, rental cars, airport transfers and hotel rates all move together.
Travelers flying into major U.S. gateways should also compare airport-area hotels with downtown properties when arrival times are late or event demand is high. For example, Odyssey travelers can compare airport options through guides for Boston Logan, New York JFK, LaGuardia, Los Angeles International, Chicago O’Hare, Las Vegas and Orlando. In Boston, where Odyssey also has a dedicated Logan airport hotel guide, staying near the airport can be worth comparing against central hotel rates during packed business or event weeks.
For families and vacationers, flexibility still matters. A trip shifted by one or two nights, or a hotel search widened beyond the most obvious neighborhood, can make a meaningful difference when midweek business demand is pushing up rates. Bundled packages may also become more attractive when they combine airfare, hotel and ground transportation into a single price that is easier to compare.
Business and Group Travel Are Back in the Equation
The rebound is particularly important for corporate travel managers, meeting planners and small businesses that book rooms for teams. U.S. Travel’s spring outlook forecasts business travel spending of $319 billion in 2026, up modestly in real terms, while domestic group travel is projected to grow 1.4 percent to $118 billion.
That may not sound like explosive growth, but hotel markets do not need explosive growth to tighten. When conferences, office visits, client meetings, project work and leisure demand overlap in the same city, even modest improvements in group and business demand can change nightly rates quickly.
Travel managers should pay close attention to midweek compression, cancellation terms and negotiated-rate availability. If demand continues to broaden, the best corporate strategy may be less about chasing the lowest possible nightly rate and more about securing reliable inventory in the right neighborhoods before event calendars fill.
The Risks Have Not Disappeared
The outlook is not risk-free. CoStar and Tourism Economics have continued to flag macroeconomic uncertainty, fuel costs, geopolitical tensions and pressure on lower-income households as factors that could affect demand. U.S. Travel also warned that consumer confidence remains weak even as domestic travel spending has held up.
International inbound travel is another uneven part of the picture. U.S. Travel expects inbound visits to grow in 2026, supported partly by major events, but it also says a full return to 2019 visit levels is not expected until 2029. That means many hotel markets are still relying heavily on domestic travelers, business demand and events rather than a fully restored international visitor base.
The Bottom Line for the U.S. Travel Market
The most important takeaway is that the U.S. hotel recovery is becoming broader and more practical. It is not only about wealthy travelers paying premium rates at luxury resorts. It is increasingly about business travelers returning midweek, groups filling room blocks, domestic vacationers staying on the road and event calendars putting pressure on supply.
For travelers, that means hotel planning deserves the same attention as airfare. For travel companies, it means packages, airport-area lodging, flexible date searches and ground-transport planning are becoming more valuable. And for the broader U.S. market, the data suggests that even in a cautious economy, Americans are still finding room in their budgets for trips when the purpose, timing and value are clear.