How Much Is a Hotel for a Month (2026 Data)

How much is a hotel for a month? In an extended-stay hotel, about $1,983¹: thirty nights at the 2025 average rate of a big hotel group's US extended-stay brands, $66.10² a night, before taxes. At the federal standard lodging rate in force today, $110³ a night in fiscal 2026, the same month comes to $3,300¹; from October 1, 2026 the rate rises to $113³, or $3,390¹ for 30 nights. In New York City the federal lodging rate averages $277.43³ a night over the year, $8,323¹ a month, about four times the extended-stay month.

An apartment is cheaper: a studio across the 48 contiguous states and DC rents for $1,345¹ a month at the Fair Market Rent, the 40th-percentile rent including utilities, weighted by population. Below are the monthly prices of extended-stay hotels, the federal lodging rate for a month in every big metro, how a hotel month compares with rent in every state, how both prices moved since 1998, and the tax rules that change once a stay passes 30, 90 or 180 days.

What a month in a hotel costs

A hotel month is thirty nights at the nightly rate. Among one big hotel group's US segments, the cheapest nights are in its extended-stay hotels²: in 2025 its extended-stay brands franchised in the US (WoodSpring Suites, Suburban Studios, MainStay Suites and Everhome Suites) averaged $66.10² a night, up 3.1%¹ from $64.12² in 2024. At that rate a month costs $1,983¹, against $1,923.60¹ a year earlier. Thirty nights at the average rate of the same franchisor's upscale hotels come to $4,492.50¹.

Extended-stay rooms are also the fullest. Their occupancy was 69.1%² in 2025, against 55.6%² for all segments together, and revenue per available room was $45.67², above the economy segment's $33.02² even though the economy nightly rate was higher. Counting every hotel in the group's US system, in the first quarter of 2026 extended-stay occupancy was 66.1%⁴, against 50.9%⁴ for all of the group's US hotels, and the average rate was $66.35⁴, or about $1,990¹ for 30 nights.

How much is an extended stay hotel per month?

At one mid-price extended-stay chain's owned hotels, a month cost around $2,000 from 2016 to 2019. Its company-owned hotels averaged $49.77⁵ a night in 2012, $1,493.10¹ for 30 nights; the rate climbed every year to $69.67⁶ in 2018, a $2,090.10¹ month. It then slipped to $67.97⁶ in 2019 and fell 12.0%⁷ in 2020 to $59.83⁷, $1,794.90¹ for 30 nights, while occupancy was still 73.1%⁷.

The ranges quoted by one extended-stay chain fit these averages. It puts typical extended-stay prices at $1,200 to $3,000⁹ a month, or $300 to $800⁹ a week, with some of its own locations under $200⁹ a week.

Weekly and monthly rates

Long stays are priced down in steps. At WoodSpring Suites, an economy extended-stay brand, the weekly rate plan for stays of 7 to 13 nights averages 34%¹⁰ less per night than the daily plan for 1 to 6 nights, and stays of 28 nights or more average 44%¹¹ less. A four-week guest therefore pays about 56%¹ of the daily-plan price per night, and the discount starts two nights before the 30-night mark that matters for tax.

Who stays a month or longer

For extended-stay hotels the month-long guest is the core business. At the mid-price chain above, stays of 30 nights or more brought in 44.2%¹² of total revenue in 2015 and 41.6%⁶ of owned-hotel room revenue in 2019. In 2020 the share jumped to 50.5%⁷, 8.9¹ percentage points more than a year earlier, while stays of 1 to 6 nights fell to 28.3%⁷.

The segment is large. By an industry research firm's count for 2020, the US had about 545,000¹⁶ extended-stay rooms at the end of that year. The mid-price tier, with pre-pandemic daily rates of $55⁷ to $105⁷, held about 31%¹⁶ of them, and about 43%⁷ of the mid-price rooms carried one brand, by that brand's own count.

A month at the federal lodging rate

Chain averages mix cheap and expensive places. The federal lodging rate does the opposite: it sets, for every county, the most a federal traveler is reimbursed per night before taxes, from market data. It is a cap, not a price, but it is the one official nightly hotel figure for every county in the contiguous US.

The standard rate since 2014

The standard rate, which covers every county without its own rate, is $110³ a night in fiscal 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026), $3,300¹ for 30 nights. It was $83³ in fiscal 2014, a $2,490¹ month, so the capped month has grown 32.5%¹ in twelve years. The biggest step came in fiscal 2024, from $98³ to $107³. The next rate, $113³ from October 1, 2026, adds 2.7%¹.

Meals come on top. The standard daily allowance for meals and incidental expenses rose from $46³ in fiscal 2014 to $68³ in fiscal 2025, where it stays through fiscal 2027; thirty days of it add $2,040¹, for $5,340¹ of lodging and meals together in a standard-rate month.

The most expensive places for a month

In fiscal 2026, 296³ places have their own lodging rate, from $112³ a night ($3,360¹ a month) up. Averaged over the year's seasons, Key West is the most expensive: $321.59³ a night, $9,648¹ for 30 nights. Resort towns hold most of the top places, and their seasons swing widely: a winter month in Park City, at $483³ a night from December to March, costs $14,490¹, against $6,630¹ in its low season.

Averages hide the seasons. In Nantucket a peak-season month is $14,130¹ and a low-season month $5,250¹; in Santa Monica the rate is the same all year, $8,190¹ for 30 nights.

Most places with their own rate are far cheaper than the top of the list. Of the 296³, 117³ come to under $4,000 for 30 nights and 120³ to $4,000-$4,999, so 80.1%¹ of them stay under $5,000; only 16³ reach $7,000 or more.

Big-city months, then and now

In New York City a month at the federal lodging rate went from $7,809¹ in fiscal 2014 to $8,323¹ in fiscal 2026 and will be $8,748¹ from October 2026, 12.0%¹ more than in 2014. The city's monthly figure dipped to $7,347¹ in fiscal 2021-2023 before climbing again.

Across 19 big metros, a federal-rate month from October 2026 runs from $3,990¹ in Houston to $8,748¹ in New York City.

The fastest riser of the 19 metros was Nashville, where a federal-rate month went from $3,660¹ to $6,900¹, up 88.5%¹. Houston and New York City rose least, 12.7%¹ and 12.0%¹: a Houston month went from $3,540¹ to $3,990¹. San Francisco peaked at $8,930¹ in fiscal 2020 and is $8,119¹ from October 2026.

Seasons: when the same month almost doubles

Most big-city rates change with the season. In New York City the fiscal 2026 rate is $179³ a night in January and February and $342³ from October to December and in September, so a winter month is $5,370¹ and an autumn month $10,260¹, almost double. Meals and incidentals add $92³ a day in New York City and $80³ in Houston: lodging and meals together make a New York City month $11,083¹, and a Houston month $6,240¹.

Hotel or apartment: how much it costs to live in a hotel for a month

Measured against rent, a hotel month is expensive everywhere. The comparison here uses the Fair Market Rent for fiscal 2026: the 40th-percentile monthly rent, utilities included, of standard-quality units that recent movers pay. A Boston studio's Fair Market Rent is $2,359¹⁷ a month; 30 nights at the city's federal lodging rate are $8,212¹, $5,853¹ more and 3.48¹ times the rent. In New York City the month at the federal rate is $5,794¹ above a studio's $2,529¹⁷ rent.

In multiples the order of the metros changes. Among the 19, the highest multiple is Nashville's, 4.42¹ times its studio rent, and the lowest Orlando's, 2.68¹ times. In 18 of the 19 metros even a two-bedroom apartment rents for less than half of a federal-rate hotel month: in San Francisco a two-bedroom's Fair Market Rent of $3,604¹⁷ is 45.6%¹ of the $7,901¹ hotel month. The exception is Los Angeles, where a two-bedroom's $2,903¹⁷ is 50.7%¹ of the $5,730¹ month.

By state

State figures weight each county's federal lodging rate and studio rent by its population (our calculation). Across the 48 contiguous states and DC, the weighted federal lodging rate is $140.80¹ a night, $4,224¹ for 30 nights, $2,879¹ above the weighted studio rent of $1,345¹, or 3.1¹ times. The gap is largest in DC, $5,059¹, and smallest in North Carolina, $2,373¹.

In multiples the order flips. The federal standard rate does not fall below $110³ where rents are low, so the hotel month is the largest multiple of a studio's rent in rural, low-rent states: 4.65¹ times in Wyoming and 4.45¹ in West Virginia. Massachusetts, with high rents, has the lowest multiple, 2.47¹.

Hotel prices vs rent over the years

Over the long run rent has risen much faster than hotel prices. From 1998 to 2025 the consumer price index for lodging away from home (hotels, motels and other lodging) rose 71.3%¹, and the index for rent of a primary residence 152.7%¹, more than twice as much. Hotel prices fell in recessions: by 6.6%¹ in 2009 and 10.2%¹ in 2020.

Rent followed a steadier path: its index rose every year, to 252.7¹ in 2025 on the same 1998 = 100 base¹⁹.

Since 2019 the gap has widened again: lodging prices are 12.5%¹ higher in 2025 and rent 31.3%¹. Neither index has an official outlook; the dashed lines are a straight-line trend of each series, our calculation and not a forecast.

Month to month the two move differently: hotel prices swing with the seasons while rent climbs in small steps. Between January 2024 and August 2026 the lodging index hit a low of 171.916¹⁸ in November 2025 and a high of 207.012¹⁸ in May 2026, 20.4%¹ higher. In August 2026 lodging prices were 3.2%¹ above a year earlier and rent 2.7%¹.

Tax and the 30-day line

Tax is part of how much it costs to rent a hotel for a month: hotel taxes are charged on top of the rate, and several states stop charging them once a stay is long enough. In Texas the state hotel occupancy tax ends at 30²⁰ consecutive days; a guest who gives written notice of a 30-day stay at check-in is exempt from the first day, otherwise the first 30 days are taxed. Illinois and Arizona tax stays of fewer than 30²¹ consecutive days²². Georgia's $5²³ state fee per night stops on the 31st day, and checking out and back in restarts the count.

Other places wait longer. New York State sales tax stops for a guest who has stayed 90²⁴ consecutive days, but New York City's local sales tax runs until 180²⁴. North Carolina exempts accommodations supplied to the same person for 90²⁵ or more continuous days, and hotels collect the tax until then unless a lease requires the longer stay²⁶. Florida's transient rental tax is due for the first six months unless a bona fide written lease covers more than six months of continuous residence²⁷.

In unincorporated Los Angeles County the 12%²⁸ transient occupancy tax covers stays of 30 days or less; a written agreement made within the first 30 days to stay longer exempts those first 30 days as well.

Federal travelers on long assignments

Federal employees on a long assignment are reimbursed their actual lodging cost up to the full locality rate, and a weekly or monthly room rate is divided by the days occupied to get the nightly cost. An agency may also set a reduced per diem rate when it knows in advance that lodging or meals will cost less, for example when two employees share a room or a kitchen is available (41 CFR 301-11.22)²⁹. Military and Defense Department civilian travelers used to have a different rule: a flat 75%³⁰ of the locality rate for lodging and meals on assignments of 31 to 180 days, and 55%³⁰ beyond 180 days. That flat rate ended on August 13, 2018, when the defense authorization act for fiscal 2019 was signed; since then long assignments are paid under the normal lodging-plus per diem rules³¹.

What the numbers mean for a month away from home

• The cheapest hotel month still costs more than an apartment: an extended-stay month at $1,983¹ is about 1.5¹ times the $1,345¹ studio Fair Market Rent across the contiguous states.
• Book 28 nights, not 27: at one economy extended-stay brand the 28-night plan averages 44%¹¹ below the daily rate.
• Count to 30 for tax: in Texas, Illinois and Arizona the state hotel tax stops at 30 consecutive days²⁰, so a 28-night stay gets the monthly rate but not the tax exemption.
• Time the month: at New York City's federal rate a winter month is $5,370¹ and an autumn month $10,260¹.
• Florida needs a lease: without a written lease of more than six months, a Florida stay is taxed for the first six months²⁷.

Conclusions

1. Extended-stay months cost more than a studio. At the 2025 extended-stay average rate of a big hotel group a month is $1,983, about 1.5 times the $1,345 studio Fair Market Rent; at the $110 federal standard lodging rate in force today it is $3,300, and $3,390 from October 1, 2026.²¹⁷³
2. Big cities have the widest gaps, low-rent states the highest multiples. Boston's federal-rate month is $5,853 above its studio rent and Houston's $2,560, but the highest multiples are in low-rent states, 4.65 in Wyoming and 4.45 in West Virginia, because the $110 standard rate does not fall with local rents.³¹⁷
3. Stay length changes the bill twice. Discounts start at 7 nights (34% on average at one brand) and deepen at 28 (44%), while tax exemptions start at 30 consecutive days in Texas, Illinois and Arizona, 90 in New York State and North Carolina, 180 for New York City's local sales tax and more than six months in Florida.^11202427
4. Timing matters as much as place. New York City's federal rate makes a January-February month $5,370 and an autumn month $10,260; the lodging price index was 20.4% higher in May 2026 than in November 2025, while rent moved in small monthly steps.³¹⁸
5. Hotels got cheaper relative to rent. Rent rose 152.7% from 1998 to 2025 and lodging prices 71.3%; since 2019 the gap widened again, with rent up 31.3% and lodging 12.5%.¹⁹¹⁸