[ BEYOND THE ROOM · RESEARCH ]
Hotel Industry Statistics 2026
Guest spending, revenue beyond the room, and the destination commerce opportunity · By Philip Beck
Key takeaways
- U.S. hotel guests spent $786.5 billion in 2024. Lodging was $235.5 billion, less than a third of it.
- For every $100 spent on lodging, guests spent about $106 more off-property on dining, recreation, retail and other goods and services, before transportation.
- Guests spend more off-property on those categories ($249.1B) than they spend on hotel rooms.
- DestinationCommerce estimates U.S. hotels could transact $27.3 billion a year in destination commerce beyond rooms and ordinary F&B.
- 22% of U.S. hotels hold 75% of that opportunity.
U.S. hotel industry size
- There are more than 64,000 hotels in the United States.¹
- U.S. hotels have approximately 5.7 million guestrooms.¹
- U.S. hotels sold almost 1.3 billion room nights in 2024.¹
- U.S. hotel guests spent $786.5 billion in 2024, counting spending at the hotel and throughout the trip.¹
Hotel guest spending
- U.S. hotel guests spent $235.5 billion on lodging in 2024.¹
- Lodging accounted for about 30% of total U.S. hotel guest spending.¹ ²
- For every $100 U.S. hotel guests spend on lodging, they spend about $106 more off-property on food and beverage, recreation, retail and other goods and services, before transportation.¹ ²
- U.S. hotel guests spent $249.1 billion off-property on food and beverage, recreation, retail and other goods and services in 2024. That is more than they spent on hotel rooms.¹ ²
- Total off-property spending by U.S. hotel guests, including transportation, was $434.2 billion in 2024.¹
- Transportation accounted for $185.1 billion of off-property spending. That category includes airfare.¹
- Hotel guests spent $352.3 billion on-site at hotels in 2024, including lodging.¹
- Guests spent $116.8 billion at hotels on things other than the room, about $50 for every $100 of lodging.¹ ²
- More than half (55%) of every dollar U.S. hotel guests spend is spent away from the hotel.¹ ²
Hotel revenue beyond the room
- Upper-upscale U.S. hotels earn about $92 in food and beverage revenue per occupied room. Luxury hotels earn about $220.³
- Hotels already have mature technology for rooms (PMS, CRS, revenue management, CRM, loyalty) and for restaurants (POS). Commerce beyond rooms and ordinary F&B, such as meeting space outside peak periods, pools and cabanas, parking, day-use, wellness and local experiences, is usually handled manually, by individual departments, through third-party platforms, or not at all.²
The destination commerce opportunity
The figures below are Destination Commerce model estimates of mature annual gross marketplace value (GMV), not forecasts. Methodology
- U.S. hotels could transact an estimated $27.3 billion a year in destination commerce, meaning sales beyond rooms and ordinary food and beverage.²
- $9.8 billion of that opportunity comes from hotel-controlled assets hotels already own, such as meeting and event space, pools and cabanas, parking, day-use rooms, rooftops and wellness facilities.²
- $10.3 billion comes from hotel-created offerings: packages, programs and experiences hotels design themselves.²
- $7.2 billion comes from third-party local commerce: tours, dining, transport, wellness, guides and other local businesses a hotel recommends.²
- About 14,000 full-service, luxury/lifestyle and resort properties, 22% of U.S. hotels, account for about 75% ($20.6 billion) of the opportunity.²
- Of the $27.3 billion, an estimated $12.4 billion (45%) would be retained directly by hotels.²
- An estimated $10.6 billion (39%) would flow to independent local businesses, such as tour operators, restaurants, guides and wellness providers.²
- Within the upper-tier segment alone, hotels would retain an estimated $9.7 billion a year directly.²
- The model assumes hotels put only 2.5–3.7% of their existing non-room revenue through a marketplace. It does not depend on moving existing hotel revenue onto the platform.²
- The model counts no increase in room revenue, occupancy or RevPAR. Any such benefit would be additional.²
Guest experience and hotel performance
- Hotel guest satisfaction is driven by the whole stay: rooms, amenities, food and beverage, service and perceived value (J.D. Power 2025 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study).⁴
- Research from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research associates improvements in a hotel's online reputation with greater pricing power and improved RevPAR.⁵
- The evidence shows association, not causation. No published study yet shows that adding a hotel-owned marketplace causes a specific RevPAR increase, which is why the DestinationCommerce model excludes it.²
FAQ
- How much do hotel guests spend beyond the room?
- U.S. hotel guests spent $786.5 billion in 2024, of which $235.5 billion was lodging. For every $100 on lodging, they spent about $50 more at the hotel outside the room and about $106 more off-property on dining, recreation, retail and other goods and services, before transportation.
- What percentage of hotel guest spending is the room?
- About 30%. Lodging was $235.5 billion of the $786.5 billion U.S. hotel guests spent in 2024.
- How big is the hotel non-room revenue opportunity?
- DestinationCommerce estimates U.S. hotels could transact $27.3 billion a year beyond rooms and ordinary food and beverage, across hotel-owned assets, hotel-created offerings and local partner commerce. About $12.4 billion of that would be retained directly by hotels.
- What is destination commerce?
- Destination commerce is a hospitality business model in which a hotel participates economically in everything its guests do: selling not only rooms, but the spaces it owns, the experiences it hosts, and the local businesses it vouches for, through its own branded marketplace. Read the full definition.
Methodology & sources
¹ Oxford Economics for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, Economic Impact of the U.S. Hotel Industry (January 2025, 2024 data), p. 16. Guest spending based on Longwoods International data and Oxford Economics estimates.
² DestinationCommerce analysis. Percentages and per-$100 figures are calculated from Oxford Economics data. Opportunity figures come from DestinationCommerce (DropDesk) model estimates in Destination Commerce, white paper v3.3 (September 2026): a bottom-up model across U.S. hotel tiers and three commerce engines, cross-checked against hotel operating benchmarks. The figures are modeled mature annual GMV, not forecasts. Full methodology.
³ STR data reported by CoStar News, "As Guests Prioritize Experiences, Hotel Food-and-Beverage Experts Advise Knowing Market Needs," August 27, 2025.
⁴ J.D. Power, 2025 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, as reported by Hotel Dive.
⁵ Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, research on online reputation, pricing power and RevPAR.
Why we exclude transportation from the headline. Oxford Economics' $185.1 billion transportation category includes airfare, which hotels can't realistically address. We also say "off-property" rather than "local", because Oxford notes guest spending reaches destinations and areas along the trip route.
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Cite this page: DestinationCommerce (DropDesk), "Hotel Industry Statistics 2026," Beyond the Room, 2026. https://destinationcommerce.ai/research/hotel-industry-statistics/
Media contact: hello@destinationcommerce.ai · Philip Beck is available for interview.