Tuesday Trends methodology

What this is

Tuesday Trends is a weekly read of what hotel rooms are listed for in 17 US markets. Every Tuesday evening we take Google Hotels prices for the same 50 hotels per market, at five distances into the future, for a weekday stay and a weekend stay. The board shows the median for each market, so you can see where rates sit now and, from the second week, how they move.

The current board was captured Tue, Oct 20, 2026, 9:33–10:48 PM ET. A handful of rows (30 of 8,500, for three hotels added when the lists were revised) were priced the next morning, Wed, Oct 21, for the same stay dates.

What we measure

• Refundable: cheapest refundable rate (the default). For each hotel, the lowest nightly rate with free cancellation, whether a booking site offers it or it is a refundable room rate for 2 guests. The board shows the median across the hotels that have one. Not every hotel does, so this median covers about 9 in 10 hotels at 1 week out and about 2 in 3 at ~11 months. From the Oct 27 capture, hotels missing a refundable rate are checked again (up to twice) before the board is built.
• Any rate. Google's headline nightly price for each hotel, refundable or not. Its median covers every priced hotel except low-confidence prices.
• Low-confidence prices. A price that comes from 2 or fewer sellers, with no official hotel site among them, is left out of every median. This week, for example, some resort hotels were listed only by resellers at far higher prices. They are counted, and the board's tooltips show how many were left out.
• Basis. Nightly, in US dollars, for 2 adults, before taxes and fees. A tax-inclusive view is coming soon. It is not available for the Oct 20 capture.
• Coverage. Each cell reports how many of the 50 hotels had a price for the rate shown, for example “38/50 priced”, after low-confidence prices are left out. On the board it sits in the cell's tooltip.
• Week-over-week (from next Tuesday). Changes will compare the same hotels in both weeks: the median of each hotel's own change, so hotels dropping in or out of coverage can't move the figure. A change is shown only when at least 15 hotels can be compared.

Horizons and stays

Each week the horizons are counted from the capture date: 7, 30, 91, 182 and about 325 days out. For each one we take the nearest Monday-to-Thursday stay (check in Monday, out Thursday, 3 nights) and the nearest Friday-to-Sunday stay (in Friday, out Sunday, 2 nights). Google prices out about 330 days, so the last horizon stops just inside that limit. This week's stays:

Hotel lists

Each market tracks a fixed list of 50 hotels, so week-to-week changes come from prices, not from a changing mix. Each list draws on the market's core visitor districts and includes hotels only: no vacation rentals, hostels, extended-stay or timeshare properties, and 3 stars and up (a few hotels Google doesn't star-rate are included). Hotels are ranked by Google review count times rating, weighted toward 4- and 5-star hotels, with a small number added or excluded by hand. Orlando includes the Walt Disney World and Universal resorts. Lists change only with a new version, recorded in the change log below.

List v2, effective Oct 20, 2026

Data states

Thin

Fewer than 15 of 50 hotels priced for the rate shown. The cell shows “— thin” instead of a median.

No rates on Google

Google returned the requested dates with no price and no sellers. That is not proof the hotel is sold out, so treat it as a signal, not a count of full hotels. The board shows the count 1 week out, with a dot at 10 or more of 50; hovering shows all five horizons. At ~11 months most no-rates results reflect Google's ~330-day pricing limit, so no dot is shown there.

Not on Google Hotels this week

A hotel with no price on any of the ten stays. It is not counted in the no-rates figures. This week:

• Crowne Plaza Atlanta - Midtown by IHG (Atlanta)
• Rotary House Hotel (Houston)
• Resorts World Las Vegas (Las Vegas)
• Hotel Whitcomb (San Francisco)
• O Museum in The Mansion (Washington DC)

Low confidence

Priced by 2 or fewer sellers and no official hotel site. Left out of medians and counted separately.

No price

Google listed sellers for the dates but no nightly price. The hotel is left out of the median.

No match

Google returned prices for different dates than we asked for. Those prices are discarded, never counted. None occurred this week.

What it is and isn't

• It is decision support: an indicative, repeatable read of listed rates across markets and horizons.
• It is not a quote. Rates change by the hour, and what you can book depends on room type, seller and terms.
• It is not occupancy, ADR or RevPAR. Listed rates are what hotels ask, not what guests paid; use the cited market data on each market page for performance.
• It is not a full market. Fifty prominent hotels per market skew toward large, well-reviewed properties.

Archive and change log

Each Tuesday's capture is kept unchanged; a method change re-reads the saved data rather than overwriting it. Past weeks will be listed here as they build up.

• Oct 21, 2026: method update. The refundable rate now also counts refundable room rates, not just booking-site offers, and from the Oct 27 capture hotels missing one are checked again. Low-confidence, reseller-only prices are left out of medians. “Sold out” is renamed “no rates on Google”. The Oct 20 board was re-read from the saved data, with no new price pulls.
• Oct 21, 2026: hotel lists revised to v2 before first publication (core visitor districts; Orlando adds Walt Disney World and Universal resorts).
• Oct 20, 2026: first capture. Week-over-week changes start with the Oct 27 capture.