Total Number of Hotel Rooms (2026 Data)

Every night the United States has about 5.7 million¹ hotel rooms on offer, spread across 64,165¹ hotels, motels, inns and bed-and-breakfasts, yet on an average night in 2024 only about 62.8%² of those rooms were sold. The industry behind them is just as large: it employs 1,857,900³ people, and its hotels and motels alone took in $214.2 billion⁴ in 2024.

This page counts the rooms first, then the hotels behind them: how many there are, how big a typical one is, which states hold the most, who works in them and what they earn, how much money and energy they use, and how Las Vegas packs 150,300⁵ rooms into one city. It ends with how the US compares with Europe.

How many hotel rooms are there in the US?

The US hotel stock held about 5,664,000¹ guest rooms on average in 2024, rounded to 5.7 million¹ at year-end. Those rooms sat in 64,165¹ properties, a count that includes hotels, motels, inns and bed-and-breakfasts.¹ In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, the count was 5,466,000¹ rooms in 60,828¹ properties, so the room stock grew by 3.6%² in five years while the number of properties grew by 5.5%².

The room count does not come from official statistics, which measure lodging businesses, workers, pay and revenue instead; it comes from a private industry census of hotels, motels, inns and bed-and-breakfasts, casino hotels included.¹

How many rooms does the average hotel have?

Divide the rooms by the properties and the average US hotel had 88.3² rooms in 2024, down from 89.9² in 2019. The dip is small, and it has a simple cause: the number of properties grew faster than the number of rooms.¹

An average hides a wide spread. A small roadside motel may have only a handful of rooms; the biggest casino resorts have thousands.⁶ The number of people on the payroll, covered further down, shows how lopsided the industry really is.

How many hotels there are, year by year

The official business count tells the same story from another angle. In 2023 the US had 60,776⁷ traveler accommodation establishments with paid employees: 55,895⁷ hotels and motels, 516⁷ casino hotels, 2,304⁷ bed-and-breakfast inns and 2,061⁷ other lodging places such as hostels and tourist cabins.⁷ The count leaves out places with no paid staff, so it runs a little below the industry's property count.

The long-run growth rate of the hotel industry is modest. Hotels and motels grew from 48,664⁷ establishments in 2008 to 55,895⁷ in 2023, an increase of 14.9%² in fifteen years, or about 0.99%² a year. The count rose every year through 2022 and slipped in 2023, the only yearly fall in the series.⁷

The four kinds of lodging business could hardly be more different in scale. The average casino hotel carries 743² people on its payroll, a hotel or motel 26.8² and a bed-and-breakfast inn about 5.2².⁷ Casino hotels are 0.85%² of the establishments but employ 20.1%² of lodging workers.

Not every kind of lodging is growing. Bed-and-breakfast inns with paid staff fell from 3,282⁷ in 2008 to 2,304⁷ in 2023, a drop of 29.8%², while other traveler accommodation, such as hostels, tourist cabins and guest ranches, grew from 1,355⁷ to 2,061⁷, up 52.1%².⁷ The count includes only businesses with a payroll, so inns run without employees are not in it.

How big a hotel is: staff, size and floor space

So what does a typical hotel look like from the inside? Measured by staff, the answer is small. Of the 60,776⁷ lodging establishments, 20,371⁷ had fewer than five employees in 2023 and 68.9%² had fewer than twenty.⁷ At the other end, 171⁷ establishments had 1,000 employees or more.

Across all lodging businesses, the average number of hotel employees per establishment was 31.4² in 2023. Measured by year-round averages instead of a single week in March, private lodging businesses employed 27.1² people per establishment in 2025.⁸

Floor space tells the same story in square feet. The average hotel size was 54,000⁹ square feet per building in 2018, against 14,500⁹ square feet for a motel or inn.⁹ The US had about 66,000⁹ hotel buildings and 41,000⁹ motel or inn buildings that year.

From the size of a hotel to its address: where are all these hotels?

Where the hotels are

Two states lead by a wide margin. California had 6,020⁷ hotel and motel establishments in 2023 and Texas 5,643⁷; together the two states hold 11,663², or 20.9%² of the national total.⁷ Florida, New York and Georgia follow. The District of Columbia had the fewest, 120⁷, but they are large: they employ 99.3² people each on average.

The top fifteen states hold 34,172² hotels and motels, 61.1%² of the total, but the ranking changes when you count workers instead of establishments.

Nevada shows why. It has only 574⁸ lodging establishments (2025), yet it has the third-largest lodging workforce in the country, 165,279⁸ people, because its casino resorts are enormous.⁸ Pay varies widely: lodging workers earned an average of $72,001⁸ a year in the District of Columbia, against $26,251⁸ in Arkansas and a national average of $45,678⁸.

The table also shows how differently states build their hotels. Nevada's lodging businesses average 288² employees each and Hawaii's 72², while Texas, with 6,500⁸ lodging establishments, averages about 20².⁸ Hawaii also pays its lodging workers more than any other state, $68,953⁸ a year on average, with only the District of Columbia higher.⁸

Hotel jobs and pay

Who keeps all those rooms running? Hotels and other traveler lodging employed 1,857,900³ people on average in 2025, more than twice the 785,000³ of 1972.³ The workforce peaked at 2,011,100³ in 2019, then lost 29.6%² of its jobs in a single year when travel stopped in 2020. Five years later it is still 7.6%² below the 2019 peak, even though the number of rooms is higher than in 2019.¹

Payroll recovered faster than headcount. Hotels and motels, not counting casino hotels, paid out $59.0 billion⁷ in wages in 2023 in current dollars, before inflation, more than in any earlier year of the series and above the pre-pandemic $50.1 billion⁷ of 2019.⁷ In 2019 dollars the 2023 payroll is about $49.5 billion², slightly below 2019.¹⁰ That works out to about $39,400² per employee on the payroll in March.

Hourly pay explains part of the gap between fewer workers and a larger payroll. The average lodging employee earned $24.59³ an hour in 2025, up from $17.99³ in 2019, a rise of 36.7%² in six years.³ Before 2019 pay had crept up by well under a dollar a year.

The hours tell a quieter story. Lodging staff worked 30.7³ hours a week on average in 2025, about the same as before the pandemic and short of a full-time week.³

Housekeeping is the backbone of the workforce. Maids and housekeeping cleaners held 415,160¹¹ of the 1,929,500¹¹ traveler accommodation jobs in May 2025, 21.5%² of the total, and front-desk clerks another 242,020¹¹.¹¹ Lodging managers, at $77,770¹¹ a year on average, are among the best-paid of the larger groups.

How much money does the hotel industry make?

Every one of those rooms has to earn its keep. Hotels and motels, not counting casino hotels, took in $206.2 billion¹² in revenue in 2022, and casino hotels another $75.9 billion¹²; all accommodation businesses together, including RV parks and rooming houses, took in $295.7 billion¹².¹² Hotel and motel revenue grew by 43.4%² between 2013 and 2022, collapsed by 44.3%² in 2020 and was back 5.0%² above its 2019 level by 2022, all in current dollars, before inflation; in 2019 dollars 2022 revenue was about $180.1 billion², 8.3%² below 2019.¹⁰ Counted the way the industry itself counts, US hotel operations brought in $352.3 billion¹ in 2024, and guests spent $786.5 billion¹ in and around hotels once their meals, shopping and transport are included.¹

Newer annual figures, measured on a basis not directly comparable with the 2013-2022 series, put hotel and motel revenue at $214.2 billion⁴ in 2024 and casino hotel revenue at $82.3 billion⁴.⁴

Average hotel revenue per year

Spread over the establishments, hotel and motel revenue comes to about $3.62 million² per establishment in 2022. The industry's own count gives $5.49 million² of hotel operations output per property in 2024, or about $457,500² a month, and roughly $62,200² per guest room per year.¹ A single example helps: a hotel with 100 rooms occupied every night produces about $10.0 million¹ a year in hotel operations and keeps 61¹ people on its own staff.

Revenue is not profit. In 2022 hotels and motels had 35.3%² of their revenue left after their reported operating expenses, close to the 36.3%² of 2019; in 2020 the share fell to 19.9%².¹² What is left is not net profit: interest on hotel loans, income taxes and owners' returns still have to come out of it. Casino hotels keep a smaller share, 25.5%² in 2022.

Casino hotels are a business of their own. Their number grew from 345⁷ in 2008 to 516⁷ in 2023, a rise of 49.6%², far faster than ordinary hotels.⁷ Their revenue rose from $55.8 billion¹² in 2013 to $75.9 billion¹² in 2022, an increase of 36.0%², and fell to $43.5 billion¹² in 2020.¹² Per establishment, a casino hotel takes in roughly $151.9 million² a year, about 42² times an ordinary hotel.

Expenses climbed almost as fast as revenue, by 42.4%² against 43.4%². Hotels and motels spent $133.5 billion¹² in 2022, against $93.8 billion¹² in 2013.¹²

The wider economic footprint is larger still. Hotel operations alone added $228.5 billion¹ to US gross domestic product in 2024 and raised $26.0 billion¹ in taxes on lodging.¹ Guests bought 1,298¹ million room nights in 2024, almost exactly as many as the 1,303¹ million of 2019, even though there are more rooms to fill.

How much energy does a hotel use?

From money to power: a hotel never switches off. The average US hotel building used 4,194⁹ million Btu of energy in 2018, including 703,000⁹ kilowatt-hours of electricity.⁹ Per square foot, a hotel used 77.7⁹ thousand Btu and a motel or inn 80⁹ thousand Btu: the smaller buildings use slightly more energy for each square foot.

Among lodging buildings, nursing homes and assisted-living buildings use the most energy per building, 4,696⁹ million Btu, ahead of hotels; motels and inns use about a quarter of a hotel's energy, 1,159⁹ million Btu, because they are about a quarter of the size.⁹

Lodging is one of the more energy-hungry kinds of building. It uses 1.22² times the average energy per square foot of all US commercial buildings, though far less than restaurants, food stores and hospitals.⁹

What does that cost? For average hotel utility costs, the closest measure is lodging buildings as a whole, which spent $55,600⁹ per building on energy in 2018, or $1.65⁹ per square foot, and electricity made up $46,500⁹ of it.⁹ Lodging buildings paid $0.096⁹ per kilowatt-hour on average; at that price, a hotel building's 703,000⁹ kilowatt-hours cost about $67,500² a year, an estimate, because hotel electricity prices are not published separately. Among commercial building types in the chart, only hospitals spend more on energy per building than lodging.⁹

How much water does a hotel use?

Water is measured only for large buildings, those over 200,000 square feet. Large lodging buildings used about 42¹³ gallons of water per square foot in 2012, roughly twice the 20¹³ gallons of the average large commercial building.¹³ Lodging made up 9%¹³ of large buildings and their floor space but used 19%¹³ of their water.

From one hotel's meters to a whole city of them: Las Vegas.

Total hotel rooms in Las Vegas

Las Vegas had 150,300⁵ hotel and motel rooms in 2025, about 5.9² times the 25,430⁵ it had in 1970.⁵ The count peaked at 156,100⁵ in 2023. By the middle of 2026 the Las Vegas area listed 150,527¹⁴ rooms in 292¹⁴ properties, and all of Clark County, with Laughlin and Mesquite, 161,221¹⁴.¹⁴ That works out to 515² rooms per property, 5.84² times the national average.

Rooms here exist for visitors. Las Vegas welcomed 38,545,700⁵ visitors in 2025, down from 42,523,700⁵ in 2019, a fall of 9.4%², while the room count barely moved.⁵ That is about 256² visitors a year for every room in town.

Those rooms stay remarkably full. Occupancy across the city was 80.3%⁵ in 2025 and 88.9%⁵ in 2019, far above the national rate of about 62.8%² (2024).⁵ The exceptions were 2020, when occupancy fell to 42.1%⁵, and 2021, at 66.8%⁵.

Rooms on the Las Vegas Strip

The total number of hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip at the large casino-hotels averaged 88,469² a night between July 2024 and June 2025: the 51¹⁵ Strip-area casino licensees with at least $1 million in gaming revenue had 32,291,213¹⁵ room nights available over the year.¹⁵ That is about 58.9%² of all Las Vegas rooms. Smaller hotels, timeshares and motels along the Strip are not in this count. These licensees sold 89.1%¹⁵ of their rooms over the year, and no month fell below 87%.

Strip resorts are not hotels that happen to have a casino; they are hotels that earn more from rooms than from gambling. Rooms brought in 33.5%¹⁵ of their $21.1 billion¹⁵ revenue in fiscal 2025, gaming 26.1%¹⁵.¹⁵ Food and drink together made up 26.4%² of revenue, about $5.6 billion², or roughly $109 million² per licensee, the average food and beverage revenue in a hotel of this kind. Yet after all costs they kept only $154 million¹⁵ before federal income taxes, or 0.7%¹⁵ of revenue.

Per room and per night, the numbers show where the money comes from. The average room rate was $250.72¹⁵ a night, and food and drink sales came to another $198.25² per room per day.¹⁵ It takes a lot of people to deliver that: the large Strip resorts employed 92,130¹⁵ people on average, about one for every room, with 24,478¹⁵ in their food departments and 19,142¹⁵ in their rooms departments.¹⁵

Two companies run a large share of the Strip. MGM Resorts' total hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip came to 37,000⁶ at the end of 2025, across nine resorts led by MGM Grand Las Vegas with 6,488⁶.⁶

Caesars Entertainment's total hotel rooms in its Las Vegas segment add up to 20,630² in eight properties, and those rooms were 94.1%¹⁶ full in 2025.¹⁶ Together the two companies operate about 38.3%² of all rooms in the Las Vegas area.

The biggest hotel companies

Hotel brands belong to a handful of companies that operate worldwide. Marriott's system held 1,779,936¹⁷ rooms in 9,805¹⁷ properties at the end of 2025,¹⁷ Hilton's 1,351,351¹⁸ rooms in 9,158¹⁸ properties.¹⁸ Wyndham has the most franchised hotels of any company, more than 8,300¹⁹, but they are smaller, about 869,000¹⁹ rooms in all.¹⁹ These five large US-based hotel companies have about 5.0 million² rooms between them, counting their hotels in every country.

The companies' hotels differ in size as much as in number. A Hyatt hotel has 244² rooms on average (372,763²¹ rooms in 1,528²¹ hotels), a Marriott 182² and a Hilton 148², while a Choice hotel, with 656,825²⁰ rooms in 7,575²⁰ open hotels, has 86.7², close to the US average.²⁰ Wyndham has about 850² fewer hotels than Hilton but about 482,000² fewer rooms.

The US hotel count next to Europe

The 27 countries of the European Union had 6,173,288²² bedrooms in hotels and similar places in 2024, a little more than the US, but in 162,375²² establishments.²² The number of hotel establishments by country shows why: Italy alone had 32,943²² and Germany 29,407²². A European hotel has 38.0² rooms on average, so the average US hotel is about 2.32² times as large. Italy, Germany and Spain each have close to a million hotel bedrooms, 1,091,230²², 997,697²² and 962,309²², and Türkiye follows with 882,685²².²²

What the numbers mean for a trip

For a traveler, the size of the stock matters more than any single hotel: with about 5.7 million¹ rooms and roughly 62.8%² of them sold on an average night in 2024, 37.2%² of the country's rooms stood empty on a typical night. Las Vegas is the exception; at 89.1%¹⁵ occupancy on the Strip, a room there is much harder to find on short notice. The staffing numbers matter too: hotels run with 7.6%² fewer workers than in 2019, and housekeepers alone make up 21.5%² of the workforce that cleans and runs those rooms.

Conclusions

1. The US adds hotels faster than rooms. Properties grew 5.5%² and rooms 3.6%² between 2019 and 2024, so the average hotel shrank from 89.9² to 88.3² rooms: growth now comes from more, slightly smaller properties rather than bigger ones.
2. Fewer workers are paid more an hour. Lodging jobs are 7.6%² below 2019 while hourly pay is up 36.7%², faster than prices, which rose 25.9%² over the same 2019-2025 period.¹⁰ The hotel and motel payroll of $59.0 billion⁷ in 2023 is the largest since at least 2008 in current dollars, but in 2019 dollars it is about $49.5 billion², slightly below 2019.¹⁰
3. Las Vegas is a different business. With 150,300⁵ rooms, about 58.9%² of them in large casino-hotels that fill 89.1%¹⁵ of their rooms, the Strip still kept only 0.7%¹⁵ of revenue before federal income taxes in fiscal 2025: full rooms do not guarantee profits.
4. Europe has more hotel rooms, the US has bigger hotels. The EU has slightly more hotel bedrooms than the US, 6,173,288²², but the average US hotel is 2.32² times as large, which is why the US needs far fewer properties to house its travelers.