Is it cheaper to book a hotel 60 days ahead? It depends on the city
4 min read
We compared the price of the same night booked 60 days and 15 days in advance, across 62 cities. In most cities it made little difference. In a few it moved the price by 10% or more, and not always in the direction you would expect.
The usual advice is to book early. Our data lets us test it, because we record the price of every night twice: once 60 days before check-in, and again 15 days before. That gives us pairs of prices for the same city, the same night and the same star rating.
For this article we used every night from June 9 to November 27, 2026: 172 nights in 62 cities, which makes about 10,000 pairs for 3-star hotels.
Across all cities, it is close to a coin flip
- Waiting until 15 days before was cheaper in 54% of the pairs. Booking at 60 days was cheaper in the other 46%.
- In 33 of the 62 cities, the average price at 15 days was within 3% of the price at 60 days.
- In 18 cities, waiting was cheaper by 3% or more. In 11 cities, booking early was cheaper by 3% or more.
So there is no general rule in these numbers. The interesting part is at the two ends of the list, where the city makes a large difference.
Where booking early paid off
Seoul is the clearest case. A 3-star night cost $183 on average when booked 60 days ahead and $207 when booked 15 days ahead, which is 14% more. Waiting was cheaper on only 7 of 166 nights. The gap was there in every month we tracked, from 7% in November to 20% in August.
Seoul — 15-day vs 60-day advance booking
Three other large cities showed the same direction, with smaller gaps: Tokyo (9% more at 15 days), London (7%) and Chicago (6%). In London the effect grew stronger in the autumn: from September to November, waiting was cheaper on only 3 of 83 nights.
Where waiting paid off
In Dubai, the price at 15 days was 18% lower than at 60 days ($83 against $101), and waiting was cheaper on 145 of 166 nights. Most of that gap came from October and November, the start of the city's high season: those nights averaged $161 when booked 60 days ahead and $114 when booked 15 days ahead. From June to September the difference was 6%.
Dubai — 15-day vs 60-day advance booking
Las Vegas was steadier. Waiting was cheaper on 144 of 166 nights, by 8% on average, and by 8% to 11% in each month from July to October.
Miami looks similar at first (15% lower at 15 days), but almost all of it comes from two months. For check-ins in June and July, a night cost $305 at 60 days and $207 at 15 days. From August on, the two prices were less than 1% apart. Miami hosted World Cup matches in June and July, so one reading is that hotels priced those weeks high in advance and then cut prices as the dates approached. Our data shows the drop but cannot confirm the reason.
The numbers side by side
| City | 60 days ahead | 15 days ahead | Difference | Waiting was cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul | $183 | $207 | +14% | 4% |
| Tokyo | $145 | $158 | +9% | 27% |
| London | $257 | $275 | +7% | 20% |
| Chicago | $310 | $328 | +6% | 25% |
| Paris | $277 | $282 | +2% | 49% |
| New York City | $420 | $414 | -2% | 54% |
| Las Vegas | $179 | $165 | -8% | 87% |
| Miami | $213 | $180 | -15% | 71% |
| Dubai | $101 | $83 | -18% | 87% |
Average nightly price in USD, 3-star hotels, check-ins from June 9 to November 27, 2026. The last column is the share of nights on which the price at 15 days was the lower one.
The 4-star numbers point the same way: Seoul was 14% more expensive at 15 days, Tokyo 9% and Chicago 8%, while Dubai was 16% cheaper, and Miami and Las Vegas 12% cheaper.
What this means if you are planning a trip
- There is no universal rule. In most cities, booking 60 days ahead or 15 days ahead cost about the same.
- Check the city. Where prices climb as the date approaches, as in Seoul, Tokyo, London and Chicago, the price two weeks out was 6% to 14% higher on average than the price two months out. You can look up any of the 62 cities on the Advance Period page.
- Waiting has a cost that this comparison does not measure. In Dubai and Las Vegas the average price fell, but fewer rooms are left by then. A rate with free cancellation, booked early and checked again two weeks before the trip, covers both cases.
How to read these numbers
- We compare the average price of the hotels on offer, not the price of one specific room. Hotels that sell out are no longer part of the later average.
- We only have two booking points, 60 days and 15 days. This says nothing about last-minute prices or about booking six months ahead.
- The period is June 9 to November 27, 2026. A different season could look different, as Miami shows.
- Prices are converted to US dollars on the day they are recorded. Outside the United States, currency movements between the two booking dates account for a small part of the difference.
- Prices are for 2 adults, 1 night, with breakfast included, at hotels with a review score of 7 or more. Nights when a city was nearly sold out at either booking point are left out.
The charts on this page are live, so you can see whether these gaps hold as new data comes in.
