- Overall booking volumes fell by almost 6%, with a downturn in bookings from US-based travellers accounting for almost half of the shortfall.
- US hotel bookings continue to decline, dropping 7.86% in Q3 and down almost 10% overall for the year to date.
- After remaining fairly flat in the first 6 months of the year, average global nightly hotel rates rose by 4.18% in Q3 2025, compared to Q3 2024.
HotelHub, the leading provider of hotel booking technology for travel management companies, has released its Q3 2025 edition of the HotelHub Index, revealing significant rate rises across many key business destinations while overall booking volumes dropped. These findings come as temperamental trade policies and a weakening dollar continue to affect travel both to and from the US
The report, which has examined the more than 1.75 million bookings made via HotelHub technology between July and September 2025, shows that the number of bookings for the quarter fell by almost 6% compared to the same period in 2024, with overall volumes down in fourteen of the top twenty countries booked by HotelHub users.
However, deeper analysis of the data reveals that a significant proportion of this shortfall – 45.35% – is due to fewer bookings from US-based travellers.
Overall, the total number of bookings made by American customers dropped by 8.52% compared to Q3 2024, which has had a marked impact on booking figures in other countries.
Bookings at UK hotels, for instance, fell by 6.03% in Q3 2025 versus Q3 2024; however, the reduced number of bookings from the US alone accounted for over a quarter (26.51%) of the deficit.
Bookings at hotels in the US itself continue to trend negatively, falling 7.86% overall compared to Q3 2024. Notably, international bookings to the US were down 10.88% at the close of the quarter and September, typically one of the busiest months of the year, saw almost 14% fewer overseas travellers – suggesting that the hesitancy to travel to the US we’ve seen in recent months is not yet abating.
This is also evidenced by the 4.2% decrease in lead times for US bookings versus Q3 2024 (in contrast to a 0.59% increase in the global average) which points to a growing reluctance to commit to US travel too far in advance.
Meanwhile, as booking figures have dropped, the index shows that the global average rate per night has risen by 4.18%, going from $183 in Q3 2024 to $191 in Q3 2025. This is a considerable increase after moderate year-on-year rises in Q1 (+0.19% vs Q1 2024) and Q2 (+1.77% vs Q2 2024).
As a region, Europe recorded a 7.41% increase in average prices compared to Q3 2024, with rates at the higher end surging by more than 14% in Finland ($165 in Q3 2025 vs. $144 in Q3 2024), Spain ($183 in Q3 2025 vs. $160 in Q3 2024) and Denmark ($218 in Q3 2025 vs. $191 in Q3 2024).
Elsewhere around the world, significant increases were recorded in many key cities for business, including
- +18.26% in Bangalore
($158 in Q3 2025 vs. $133 in Q3 2024) - +13.19% in Toronto
($333 in Q3 2025 vs. $294 in Q3 2024) - +10.05% in Tokyo
($307 in Q3 2025 vs. $279 in Q3 2024).
In contrast, average US prices increased at a much lower rate than most other countries in the top 20 destinations for HotelHub users, up just 1.92% compared to the same period in 2024.
HotelHub’s chief commercial officer, Paul Raymond, commented:
“At this stage in the year, it is probably safe to say that the trends we’ve seen to and from the US are here to stay for the rest of 2025. What’s less clear is whether the shifts in global trade that have emerged this year and the new alliances that have formed out of necessity will be short-lived or become the norm in 2026 and beyond.
While the declining strength of the US dollar will likely continue to impact outbound travel for American travellers, it may make the US a more attractive prospect to international businesses, swinging the pendulum back the other way.”
One notable outlier in the data is Canada which has been going from strength to strength throughout 2025. Despite a 17.19% drop in bookings from the US, its second biggest originating market, overall Q3 bookings were up 8.47% compared to the same period last year. The total figures were bolstered by 14.67% jump in domestic bookings as well as a positive uptick in reservations from other countries such as the UK (+4.76%) and France (+4.27%).
