How did Philly hotels do with summer travelers? Better than you’d think

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It was an unexpectedly hot day when a family of five visited Philadelphia from New York City this summer. The Weinbergs had several young children in tow so they rented a quad pedal bike to explore Kelly Drive with views of the Schuylkill River.

They also popped into the Philadelphia Mint, a branch of the U.S. Mint on Independence Mall, nearby one of the city’s historic districts.

“There’s a lot of fun things to do in Philly,” said the father, Tzvi Weinberg. “We’re big fans.”

Over the past summer, there were a lot of Philly fans staying overnight in Center City.

Hotel occupancy in the urban core was 73% between May 25 and Aug. 31, that’s a 9.5% increase over the year, according to Visit Philly hotel stay data.

This “upward trend in hotel occupancy and demand” signals “continued recovery and growth in our travel and hospitality sector,” according to Visit Philly officials.

And it’s a sizable improvement compared to 2022 – a jump of 24%, data shows.

Leisure travel rebounds while business lags

“So we’re looking at this year as being a year where we get back to hotel room demand that’s about equal to 2019 levels,” said Aran Ryan, director of industry studies at Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company.

Another common metric is the “average daily rate,” which is how much hotels cost – in Center City that increased by 0.3% between 2023 and 2024.

That last bit, about hotel room prices, was somewhat surprising despite increased demand, Ryan said.

“It looked like the [average daily rate] growth was not particularly strong,” he said. “Typically with that much demand growth [year-over-year] we would have expected to see stronger pricing gains. I think that’s something we’ll be looking for in the future.”

Nationwide, for urban markets there’s been a slower recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic for business travel and “group” travel which could be conventions or meetings, he said. Philadelphia has tracked the national market in general.

“Philly has seen stronger leisure room nights than in 2019 so we’ve had that segment of the market recover but are still waiting for those other two segments [business and group] to fully come back,” he said.

As the city gears up for its big year in 2026, there’s an expected 500,000 visitors among a trifecta of events.

That includes the FIFA World Cup soccer games, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the 250th birthday of America – all happening in July 2026.