Saudi Hotels: Strong Occupancy in Early 2026

The latest official tourism accommodation figures point to solid demand for Saudi hotels in early 2026, driven largely by religious and domestic travel, though a specific nationwide record for July has not yet been published.

nationwide hotel occupancy stood at roughly 60.8% to 61%, reaching 63% at the room level in hotels and about 51.6% for serviced apartments and similar facilities. Separate sector tracking put hotel occupancy at around 66.3% for the same period, with religious destinations leading demand: Makkah at 78.6% and Madinah at 81.3%.

Madinah recorded the highest overall occupancy in the Kingdom at 82% across hotels and other tourist accommodation, backed by significant capacity of 76,907 rooms — about 91% of them in hotels — ranking it second nationwide in licensed accommodation.

On pricing, the average daily room rate in hotels was about SAR 423 down 11.4% year-on-year, while travel-trade monitoring reported a national average near SAR 389, roughly 12% lower than a year earlier. Later 2026 sector data showed rates rising, with city-level averages of around SAR 918 in Makkah, SAR 878 in Madinah, SAR 771 in Riyadh, and SAR 635 in Jeddah.

The broader picture remains strong. The Kingdom welcomed 122.6 million visitors in 2025, including 93.3 million domestic tourists. In Q1 2026, domestic trips reached about 28.9 to 30 million, up around 16% year-on-year, with total tourism spending near SAR 82.7 billion.

For residents and travelers, there are no fixed government-set room fees for post-Hajj or domestic stays; prices are set dynamically by operators. Bookings can be made through hotel websites, phone reservations, walk-ins, and commercial online travel platforms, giving visitors flexibility as capacity continues to expand — licensed hospitality facilities rose 22.7% year-on-year to 6,122.

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