In Brief: Recorded business lodging nights in Emburse’s 10 highest-volume U.S. cities rose 16.6% in the first half of 2026, but growth slowed to low single digits in summer. Higher travel volume, not higher nightly lodging costs, drove the increase in company lodging expenses.
First-Half Travel Activity Increases
Lodging nights recorded in the 10 U.S. cities with the highest lodging volume rose 16.6% in the first half of 2026 versus the same period in 2025.
The Emburse analysis covered 586 U.S.-headquartered organizations and approximately 25,000 employees who submitted lodging expenses. The number of organizations recording lodging expenses in the selected cities rose from 582 in the first half of 2025 to 583 during the same period in 2026.
More employees submitted expenses, and more nights were recorded per employee. A total of 12,495 employees submitted lodging expenses in the 10 cities during the first half of 2026, up 7.5% from 11,625 a year earlier.
Expense records showed an average of 4.8 lodging nights per submitting employee during the six-month period, compared with 4.4 nights in the first half of 2025. The average duration recorded on each lodging expense rose 6.8%, from 2.13 nights to 2.28 nights.
Summer Growth Loses Momentum
Year-over-year recorded lodging-night growth was 21.4% in the first quarter and 11.9% in the second quarter. The rate fell to 1.7% in June, then rose to 3.3% in July and fell to 1.9% in August.
The summer figures offer an early view of activity because companies may file or process expense records after the travel period. The results do not establish whether business travel demand is declining or predict travel activity in 2027.
Because the data compares the same months in consecutive years, the lower growth rates reflect a slower rate of increase in recorded lodging nights rather than normal seasonal changes in travel alone.
Total Lodging Expenses Rise as Nightly Average Declines
Total lodging expenses in the 10 cities increased even as the average expense per recorded night declined slightly. Positive U.S.-dollar lodging expenses rose from about $14.50 million in the first half of 2025 to about $16.72 million in the first half of 2026, a roughly 15% increase.
Average lodging expense per recorded night decreased 1.2%, from about $292 to $289. Greater lodging volume drove the increase in total expenses.
The data does not determine whether individual employees made more trips, stayed longer on trips or both.
City-Level Results Vary
Las Vegas had the most recorded lodging nights across the full analysis period, with 31,973 nights. The city recorded 27.2% growth in the first half of 2026, and its largest customer accounted for 7% of recorded nights.
New York recorded 15.6% first-half growth and had the highest average lodging expense among the 10 cities, with a full-period average of $461.36 per recorded night.
San Francisco reported the highest first-half growth rate among the selected cities, at 32.3%, while its lodging expense per recorded night declined. Longer recorded stays affected the result, and San Francisco’s position changes when the analysis limits recorded trip durations to 30 nights rather than the report’s standard cap of 365 nights.
Methodology and Limitations
The analysis used a fixed cohort of 586 Emburse customers headquartered in the United States. It covered reported U.S. cities and check-in dates from Jan. 1, 2025, through Sept. 18, 2026. First-half comparisons measured January through June 2026 against the same period in 2025.
Cities were ranked by recorded lodging nights, calculated as check-out minus check-in dates, with durations limited to 1-365 nights. Each city was required to include at least two organizations, and no single customer could account for more than 80% of a city’s recorded nights.