by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 7:20 PM ET, Wed August 19, 2026
With the cost of living skyrocketing over the past year and a half, it’s been a challenging time economically for many American households, including those that still want to enjoy the benefits of travel.
According to research released by the job platform Monster earlier this year, 52% of workers say rising living costs are causing them to stay home more often this summer. Moreover, 37% are looking for lower-cost leisure activities.
With this wallet crunch in mind, the travel and spend management platform Engine recently analyzed 129 million nightly hotel prices across 50 major U.S. markets to understand when hotel rates are cheapest, when they spike, and what's driving those patterns.
Using that data, the company has come up with all manner of helpful hotel information for budget conscious travelers, including details about which cities across the U.S. offer a hotel bargain each month of the calendar year.
Some of the high level takeaways: The data shows that timing can make a major difference in the price consumers pay for a hotel. In some cities, choosing the right month can mean a 40% – 64% difference in hotel rates.
The analysis also revealed that:
Worse weather, better rates: The colder the city, the cheaper the rates. Hotel room rates in Boston fall to $166 in January, for instance, and hit $458 in October, a 2.75 times difference between months. The Sun Belt runs the opposite way. Phoenix hotel rooms peak at $246 during the busy spring-training season, then melt to $96 by August, while Miami bottoms out at $128 in September.
Fall is rush hour, where rooms are already expensive: Summer is the more common hotel room rate peak. Rooms across 22 of the 50 markets studied top out in June or July. But the eight that peak in October are the pricier ones. Their cheapest months average $140, against $120 for the summer group. But fall is rush hour in the markets awash is picturesque foliage. Boston tops out at $458 in October, and New York touches $458 in September.
A few events own the calendar: Omaha's hotel room rates sit near $100 all year, then jump to $182 the month the College World Series comes to town. Albuquerque follows the same pattern in October for the region's famous Balloon Fiesta, while in San Diego it's the arrival of Comic-Con in July that drives up rates. And in Indianapolis, the Indy 500 has a similar effect in May. Moral of the story? When a month looks broken, check the calendar before you blame the city. The months on either side of these massive events sit far closer to the city's baseline than to the spike itself.
Some cities never move: El Paso (10%), Los Angeles (13%) and Dallas (19%) barely budge all year. Steady business demand keeps the curve flat, so book them whenever and spend the effort somewhere else. New York is the exception: it swings 64% over the the course of the year. The city's cheapest month is the highest in the dataset that analysts studied at $196. A stay in New York in December, meanwhile, is a steep $541, which is the single priciest room rate of all locations studied.
Month-by-month hotel guide
Now for the all-important month-by-month guide to hotel bargains across the United States — with details surrounding which cities to visit and which to avoid as the year unfolds. Here’s what Engine’s data analysis revealed.
January
Go: You may not see much sunshine in January, but San Diego, California offers a bargain in January with hotel rooms averaging $157 per night. It’s the cheapest month of the year to visit, before the city’s convention calendar kicks off.
Skip: Palm Springs, California is best avoided this time of year. It’s high season for the desert destination and hotel prices are an average of $241 per night.
February
Go: Las Vegas, Nevada is the place to score a deal on a hotel come February when prices average about $143.
Skip: This one should be slightly obvious, but Miami, Florida is best avoided in winter when nearly everyone seeking sunshine is already there. Prices tick up to an average $267 a night come February.
March
Go: Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. If it’s a bargain hotel room you’re after in March and you’re not tied to any location in particular, consider visiting Dallas-Fort Worth, where prices drop to just $127 per night.
Skip: Spring training anyone? Phoenix is the home of spring training central for more than few sports franchises. Thus hotel prices in the city reach a premium, averaging about $246 per night.
April
Go: Austin, Texas prices dip to $169 in April, thanks to all the SXSW attendees departing the city.
Skip: You’ll want to avoid the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. in spring when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Room rates soar to $315.
May
Go: Denver, Colorado is your bargain destination for May, with hotel prices dropping to just $169 per night ahead of the region’s summer peak season.
Skip: If you know anything about Boston, you likely know that it’s a city full of colleges. Harvard, Tufts, MIT, Boston College, and Boston University, just to name a few. And what does that mean for the month of May in particular? Graduation weekends take the whole month and hotels are booked solid. And given the crunch, hotel room rates a pretty steep average of $390 per night.
June
Go: It seems Las Vegas is the place to score a bargain not once, but twice during the calendar year. Come June hotel room rates plummet to just $132. That’s because it’s so hot in the city, there’s far fewer visitors.
Skip: No explanation here from the folks at Engine as to why June is the most expensive month of the year in Chicago, but just know that it is. Hotel room average a steep $319.
July
Go: Orlando, Florida (home to many amusement parks including Disnewyworld), is a bargain in July at just $117 per night on average.
Skip: July is when the iconic Comic-Con convention descends on San Diego, bringing groupies, celebrities and all manner of movie fans. Hotel room prices shoot up to $292.
August
Go: Again, Washington, D.C. makes an appearance on the list. This time as the place to visit. Congress has vacated the city, thankfully for all of us, because their absence means hotel rates drop to just $179.
Skip: Seattle, Washington is lovely in August. And everyone knows it. So prices tick up to $272 per night.
September
Go: Hotels in Miami, Florida are a steal at $128 per night in September. Its cheapest month in the city by a wide margin, according to the report.
Skip: Nosebleed hotel prices takeover in New York in September at a steep $458. The September surge, when every company books at once.
October
Go: The heat finally breaks in Phoenix in October and hotel room prices are a steal at $159.
Skip: October is another expensive month in Boston thanks to leaf peeping season on top of conference season. Hotel prices hit a pricey $458
November
Go: In November you can fly to the world’s busiest airport, near its cheapest month.
Hotel rooms in Atlanta, Georgia drop to an average $127.
Skip: Hotel room prices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania reach a peak in November at $197.
That’s the highest November rate in the set, with no clear event behind it.
December
Go: If you can bear the cold and it’s a bargain you’re after, consider paying a visit to San Francisco in December when hotel room prices drop to just $129.
Skip: Who doesn’t love Christmas in New York. The answer is very few people apparently because hotel rooms reach the most expensive in the data set studied by Engine at an average of $541.
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