Still need a meetings property for an early-autumn program? Good luck.
The mid-year edition of the Hotel Booking Trends Report from travel-technology firm SiteMinder finds that U.S. hotel reservations for September 2026 are 11.8% higher than they were in September 2025, while room nights are up 11.5% versus last September. The data is based on more than 1.5 million reservations at the same U.S. hotels.
In fact, “even as U.S. hotels are having a rare summer where global sport [FIFA World Cup] and national celebration [America 250] are converging, September is showing the strongest room-bookings growth of the period,” said Brian Reising, regional vice president, U.S. and Latin America, SiteMinder.
Not surprisingly, the average daily rate for bookings through end of September has risen to $360.88, which is a whopping 8.0% higher versus the same period last year. While the nationwide summer events play a large role in that rate rise, strong September demand makes any decrease in rates for later in the year an unlikely prospect.
For business-event planners who have one or more September or October programs not yet booked into host properties, there appears to be little ability to negotiate on guest-room rates—unless the host property can also capture significant revenue from program elements such as F&B, AV/production, and social/leisure activity.
