There has been a recent rise in demand for both travel and hotel booking around the globe, but US hotels specifically have been more in demand than ever before.
In an interview with NewsNation, HotelPlanner CEO Tim Hentschel said, “We’re seeing robust, year-over-year demand for more than five years now.” A recent industry report shows that nationwide hotel performance exceeded last year’s growth in early May, with average daily rates climbing 1.7%. And according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, lodging and hotel rates have risen by 4.3%.
Hentschel said prices are climbing in part because hotel construction is not keeping pace with demand. “It says a lot about the strength of the economy that rates have been able to increase, yet year over year, we’re still hitting record highs,” he added.
Another factor fueling this demand is a shift toward shorter trips among North American tourists. Recent data from Hospitality Net reveals a steady increase in searches for single-night stays over the last three years. Meanwhile, the site reports that searches for extended stays fell by roughly 10% between 2023 and 2025.
These trends align with other reports we’ve seen over the last few months, with new data revealing that many global travelers have begun skipping the US on their trips in favor of other destinations. At the same time, US citizens looking to book vacations have been shifting to shorter, one-to-three day “staycations” closer to home.
