Let’s be honest—booking a hotel in the United States isn’t exactly breaking the bank in a good way. According to Hotels.com’s report, the average nightly rate for rooms across the U.S. hit $174, and another study found that overall lodging costs have climbed 15.1% since 2019. Sure, prices bounce around depending on where you go, but in major cities you’re looking at roughly $200 a night in 2026, with fancy hotels sometimes charging over $1,000. That sounds crazy, right? Well, it gets even wilder when you compare it to what hotels cost just a few decades back. Here’s the thing—if you dropped $200 on a hotel room in the 1980s, you were basically living the high life.
Back in the 1980s, even the really nice hotels came with much smaller price tags than $200, even in major cities. Take 1985: the Westin Bonaventure in LA made headlines when it cut rates from $115 down to $89 (that’s like going from $359 to $278 in today’s money). Fast forward a year, and New York hotels hit a milestone—the big luxury spots officially broke through the $200 mark. The Marriott Marquis in New York got some press attention for being in “the $200 category” back in November 1986. Now jump to November 2026, and that same Marriott Marquis is charging between $676 to over $2,000 per night. Talk about a jump!
