Why Hotels in NYC Are More Expensive Than Ever [Video]

New York City is facing a perfect storm of rising hotel prices, a crippling shortage of accommodations and regulatory changes that have left travelers with sticker shock when booking their trips to the Big Apple.

While NYC has always been a costly destination, the recent spike is surprising even by the city’s standards. In October, the average hotel room price in the city soared to $388 per night—a 7 percent increase from the 2023 average of $360—according to data from CoStar, a real estate analytics company, shared with Newsweek. This represents the highest average recorded since the firm began tracking prices in 1987.

Experts cite several factors driving the lodging crunch: the city’s use of hotels as migrant shelters, the crackdown on short-term rental platforms like Airbnb and a surge in travel demand returning to pre-pandemic levels.

One of Every Five Hotels Is Now a Shelter

The Roosevelt Hotel, once a …