There are 116,873 hotels & motels in the US as of 2025, an increase of 4.0% from 2024. Additionally, the U.S. has over 55,900 lodging properties, including over 33,000 small business properties, with about 40% of US hotels being independent rather than chain-affiliated.
The United States also leads the world in Airbnb listings, boasting around 2.25 million active properties. This makes the U.S. by far the largest market for Airbnb globally. For context, France follows the United States with 1.2 million active Airbnb listings, meaning the U.S. has nearly twice as many listings as the second-largest market. The U.S. represents about 28% of all Airbnb properties worldwide. Hotels sell about ~1.2-1.3 billion room nights annually in the U.S. where Airbnb sells ~99.5 million nights in the U.S. (based on somewhat dated 2021 data). Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that hotels sell approximately 12-13 times more room nights than Airbnb in the United States.
The average length of stay is 1.8 nights for hotels where Airbnb guests stay an average of 4.3 nights per booking. Hotels remain the dominant accommodation type for business travel, while Airbnb has captured a significant portion of leisure travel. The data shows that while Airbnb has grown substantially and captured significant market share in certain segments (particularly leisure travel), traditional hotels still dominate the accommodation market in terms of total room nights sold in the United States.
Now let’s talk about quality of accommodation. Based on my research and using ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) scores, Hilton leads hotels with an ACSI score of 81 with Marriott sitting in second with an ACSI score of 79. The average hotel score in America is at 77. Meanwhile, Airbnb has debuted with an above-average ACSI score of 78, proving that its customer experience can compete with major hotel chains. Short-term rental company Airbnb nabbed the sixth spot in hospitality, outranking many hotels. In general, hotels offer a consistent quality across locations, so many travelers know what to expect during their stay and they offer a more reliable experience with standardized rooms and services, and amenities like housekeeping and restaurants. Airbnb quality varies by property and the all-important safety and quality can be tough to determine from Airbnb listings. Its listings have variable quality, privacy and amenities depending on the location and host. Hotels are (generally) safer than Airbnbs. From the guest’s perspective, there’s often an extra safety element at play when checking into a lodging business, as compared to checking into someone’s personal home.
But everything comes at a cost. Despite having the highest average room rates, the full-service luxury and upper upscale hotel segments also outperform limited-service hotel segments on satisfaction with perceived value for prices paid. Both hotels and Airbnb accommodations share similar themes that contribute to guest dissatisfaction, including noise complaints, value for money, and staff professionalism. It is thought that established brand standards and regular inspections as well as professional training programs and corporate oversight and quality assurance favor hotels. Indeed, hotel rooms are generally better than Airbnbs for tourists on vacation and business travel. Airbnb is the thought to be the way to go if you’re planning on staying at your accommodations for more than a week, especially for family gatherings. The “Bottom Line” seems to be that hotels offer predictable, consistent quality with professional service standards, making them ideal for travelers who prioritize reliability, safety, and standardized amenities. However, this consistency comes at a premium price. By contrast, Airbnb provides variable quality that can range from exceptional to disappointing, but offers unique experiences, more space, and often better value for groups and longer stays. The quality heavily depends on individual hosts and properties.
Among hotels, the industry uses the STR (Smith Travel Research) classification system, which breaks down hotels into six main categories: Luxury hotels, Upper Upscale hotels, Upscale hotels, Upper Midscale hotels, Midscale hotels and Economy hotels. Needless to say, there’s a significant performance gap between luxury and economy hotels. The largest hotel companies by number of locations include Hilton Group Hotels & Resorts (6,323 locations across 53 states and territories), Choice International Group Hotels with 6,101 locations, Wyndham Group Hotels and Resorts has 5,984 locations, and Marriott Group Hotels & Resorts (5,970 locations). The American hotel industry demonstrates clear segmentation, with luxury properties commanding premium rates and occupancy levels, while the market remains dominated by midscale and upper-midscale properties that serve the broader traveling public.
This trip we’ve tested hotels and Airbnb. We totaled four hotel nights and 2 Airbnb nights. I would say they stayed true to their reputation for serving their purpose. It was great to have an Airbnb to gather and commune in and it was easier and more convenient and reliable to check in and out of hotels as we traveled around. I tend to pick Hampton Inns by Hilton (rated #1 chain for 16 years), so I expect to pay a bit more but get a better accommodation on average. In terms of cost, as best I can figure, giving a half-person designation per child, I am paying $107 per person per night at Hampton Inn here in Denver. That would be $267 per room per night. By contrast, our Airbnb housed 10 people on the same basis for two nights at a cost of $109 per person per night….so pretty comparable. Now that I know that, I will measure our family gatherings on that scale, thinking that non-NYC gatherings should cost more or less $110/person per night. I realize the free breakfast at Hampton Inn throws this off by about $15 per head….but who’s counting, right? I should add that in NYC we stay at the Cornell Club and pay about twice as much per person per night, but also get a very upscale white tablecloth breakfast.
Its not hard to tell what got me going down this path today. I don’t think of myself as A particularly parsimonious person, but hotel stays are a bit of a thing for me. Maybe it’s because I worked for a summer in hotels in Atlantic City (decidedly NOT upscale) or maybe it’s because I taught hotel economics at the Cornell Hotel School one year during graduate school. But it’s probably more because I’m here at the Hampton Inn in Golden, Colorado and not feeling that the room is as upscale as I had hoped. I find myself wondering if Hilton or its franchisees are milking their brand reputation at the expense of my sensibilities.
All in all, I think one in ten nights I’m away from home may find me in a place that I find as comfortable as my home, no matter how much luxury or fancy breakfast gets thrown at me. In other words, the terms luxury and upscale mean little to me in the context of hospitality. It’s really all about getting through the travel experience in order to just get back home as soon as you can.