Monthly rent prices may seem sky-high in some cities, but they’re nothing compared to the cost of a hotel stay. In some of America’s most sought-after tourist spots, the average nightly hotel rate surpasses $200, according to data compiled by cheaphotels.org. This means a month-long staycation could cost well over $6,000.
So, how far does your rent check go in the hotel market, and can renters afford a local staycation? Zoocasa compared monthly rents to hotel rates in 73 cities to find where the gap between local living and tourist stays is widest, and which cities offer the best staycation value for your budget.
Hotels Are 5x the Cost of Rent in Some Cities
Are hotels becoming overpriced, or is rent growth simply slowing down? Naturally, a night in a hotel will cost more than a night in your own apartment, but how much of a premium is reasonable? Should a room cost twice as much as local rent? Triple? How about five times the cost?
That’s the reality in cities like Raleigh, Austin, and Albuquerque, where hotel rates are more than five times the cost of monthly rent. The situation is even more extreme in Detroit, where a one-month hotel stay costs six times the monthly rent of $1,101.
While rents in all of these cities fall below the national average of $1,631, making them generally affordable for renters, their nightly hotel rates are disproportionately high. In all of the cities where the average nightly hotel cost is at least five times the monthly rent, the rate is over $200, with the sole exception of Toledo.
It’s Cheaper to Live in a Hotel Than an Apartment in San Francisco
Whether these numbers suggest that hotels are overpriced or that local rents are exceptionally affordable is debatable in cities like Austin and Raleigh. However, the answer is far clearer in San Francisco.
San Francisco’s average rent of $3,157 is one of the highest in the country, and its rate of growth is also outpacing other major metros. According to apartments.com, the average rent in San Francisco increased by 4.9% from 2024, while Chicago and New York experienced more muted growth of under 2%. Meanwhile, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington DC experienced a drop in their rental prices.
This puts San Francisco in a unique situation where the average nightly hotel rate of $105—totaling $3,150 for a 30-day stay—is actually $33 less than the average monthly rent. Consequently, a renter in San Francisco would save money by choosing to stay in a hotel for a month instead of renting.
No other city comes remotely close to achieving this. In Arlington, the city with the next smallest gap between monthly rent and a monthly hotel stay, a hotel is $532 more expensive than rent. In Virginia Beach, Irvine, and Miami, it’s at least an extra $1,500 to stay in a hotel for a month.
In the majority of cities analyzed, however, a full month’s rent covers fewer than 10 days in a hotel. While New Yorkers can afford two weeks in a hotel, renters in more affordable cities like Tallahassee, Rochester, and Boise can afford fewer than seven days.
If an entire month’s housing budget is exhausted in just a few nights at a hotel, it is no surprise that renters are discouraged from taking vacations. This financial barrier is compounded by a lack of savings; a Zoocasa survey found that nearly 40% of renters could only cover their housing expenses for one to three months if they lost their job, highlighting just how unstable renter finances can be.
In fact, the burden of renting is so significant that a study in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health found that renting accelerates biological aging, a signal of worsening health and an increased risk of chronic illness.
A Local Staycation Might Require Over 50% of Your Rental Budget
Most people aren’t planning a one-month hotel stay, but what about a long weekend spent downtown by the pool? Surely, a three-night local getaway shouldn’t consume too much of your rental budget, right?
In reality, there are only five cities where a three-night stay costs less than 20% of a renter’s monthly budget: Anaheim, Miami, Irvine, Arlington, and San Francisco. In the majority of cities, a renter wanting a staycation would need to spend more than 35% of their monthly rent, with vacation hotspots like Phoenix and Nashville requiring over 40%.
Detroit renters are the most likely to be priced out of a staycation in their own city. With the average three-night stay costing $708, a renter would spend a staggering 64.3% of their monthly rental budget on hotel fees. Similarly, in Albuquerque and Raleigh, a three-night hotel stay remains prohibitive for local renters, requiring over 50% of their monthly housing budget.
Hotel Rental Budgets Often Stretch Further in Other Cities
While a local staycation may be financially out of reach for many, traveling to a different market can unlock surprising value. For instance, a Raleigh resident can only afford 5.2 nights in a hotel in their own city; however, by traveling to Denver, where hotel rates are lower, a week-long stay becomes possible.
The reverse is true for those living in more affordable markets, who are effectively locked out of high-cost-of-living hubs. In Toledo, where the average rent is just $812, a mere two-night stay in a Boston hotel consumes an entire month’s worth of housing expenses. Similarly, a Tulsa renter paying $900 per month can afford just three nights in Jersey City, compared to the six nights they could afford at a hotel in their own backyard.
Conversely, renters from high-cost cities enjoy immense travel flexibility. A Boston renter paying the average rent of $3,407 can afford to stay for over 30 days in a Little Rock hotel, despite only being able to afford 10 days in their own city.
Ultimately, renters seeking an affordable getaway should look for destinations where the cost of living is significantly lower than their own. But in low-cost cities like Toledo and Tulsa, affordable rent may come at the cost of travel flexibility.
Budgeting as a Renter in 2026
For the modern renter, budgeting in 2026 isn’t just about affording basic necessities like housing and groceries; it must also account for the rising cost of leisure. As rent burdens consume a larger share of income, a renter’s ability to spend on leisure activities—whether it’s a vacation or a pottery class—is often the first to be sacrificed.
When a single long weekend at a downtown hotel can cost more than half of a month’s rent, the price of an affordable apartment often includes a quieter, more stationary lifestyle. Ultimately, as these barriers to recreation grow, a renter’s overall life satisfaction may also dwindle, emphasizing that the true cost of housing is often measured in the experiences we can no longer afford.
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