The average daily rate (ADR) of Romanian hotels rose to 491 RON in July 2026, 8.3% above the July 2025 level, while in Bucharest it exceeded 544 RON, according to monthly STR data provided to consulting firm Fivestar Hospitality. At the same time, an independent study conducted by Hotel Revenue across 564 3- and 4-star hotels reveals that the typical Romanian hotel sells its rooms using only two distinct price points per month, and four out of ten rely on a single price.
The Romanian hotel industry closed July with revenue growth driven almost entirely by room rates. Nationally, occupancy reached 66.9%, up 3.7% compared to July 2025, while the average daily rate (ADR) climbed 8.3% to 491 RON. Revenue per available room (RevPAR), the metric combining both, grew by 12.3% to 329 RON, according to data from STR, CoStar Group’s hotel benchmarking division, provided monthly to consulting firm Fivestar Hospitality. These figures represent the latest available month; the report for August is expected in mid-September.
Bucharest drove the market upward. In July, the capital posted an occupancy rate of 71.4%, 6.5% higher than last year, an ADR of 544 RON (+9.6%), and a RevPAR of 389 RON, up 16.7%. Over the first seven months of the year, Bucharest hotels maintained an occupancy rate of 71.1% and an average rate of 572 RON, 6.4% higher than during the same period in 2025, bringing cumulative RevPAR to 407 RON, an increase of 9%.
Outside the capital, the picture is different. Hotels across the rest of the country recorded 61.5% occupancy in July, down 1.7%, offset by an ADR increase of 4.2% to 398 RON, leading to a modest RevPAR gain of 2.4% to 245 RON. Cumulative figures for January–July, however, show the regional market in decline: occupancy dropped to 50.1%, 7.5% below last year, and RevPAR lost 3.9% to stand at 181 RON, despite an average rate 3.9% higher. In other words, regional hotels sold at higher prices, but sold fewer rooms.
Among major cities, Cluj-Napoca recorded the highest average rate in the country in July at 602 RON, up 11.3% over last year, with an occupancy of 69.4%, a 23% jump compared to a weak July 2025. Timișoara sits at the opposite pole: an ADR of 358 RON (+5.1%), but occupancy down 10.7% to 54.8%, and RevPAR down 6.1%. For both cities, the sample of reporting hotels is small, meaning figures should be viewed as indicative.
Two price points for 30 days
Against the backdrop of these rate increases, a study published in September by Hotel Revenue, the revenue management firm led by Eduard Gabor Ciobotaru, sheds light on the tools Romanian hoteliers used to capture market willingness to pay. The Hotel Pricing Barometer automatically monitored rates displayed on booking channels by 564 3- and 4-star hotels with at least 20 rooms across 28 destinations, across six sample days in each of the following twelve months—nearly 40,000 price points in a single week. Of these, 211 hotels had uploaded sufficient rates to be included in the calculation.
The outcome: the median hotel uses only two distinct price points across an entire month. 41% of hotels maintain a single rate throughout their typical month, and 19 hotels charge the exact same rate in every month they sell, across the entire upcoming year.
The most telling indicator is the gap between weekends and weekdays. Across the 169 city hotels analyzed, the median hotel charges the exact same rate on Saturday night as on Tuesday night; only 40 of them charge more on weekends. In six cities—Timișoara, Iași, Oradea, Suceava, Bacău, and Constanța—the median hotel has the identical rate across all six sampled days of the month. Bucharest, with 2.6 price points per month and a weekend-to-weekday ratio of exactly 1.00, is no exception. Timișoara, with 1.5 price points per month, exhibits the least price differentiation among major cities (Bucharest 2.6, Cluj-Napoca 2.3, Iași 1.8)—a datapoint to consider alongside the STR figures above, not as an explanation of them: the STR sample is small, and a decline in occupancy can also stem from new supply.
Rate differentiation only surfaces where seasonality dictates it: at the few mountain and spa hotels that have already loaded rates for winter, weekends cost 14% to 40% more than weekdays (Poiana Brașov +14% across 5 hotels, Sovata +17% across 4, Sinaia +41% across 3), figures presented as indicative pending broader sample coverage. “The methodology captures differentiation where it exists. When it shows zero for cities, there really is nothing to see,” notes the study’s author.
“On a Tuesday, a city hotel accommodates a corporate traveler on a company account. On a Saturday, it hosts a couple on a city break paying out of pocket. They are two different guests, with different budgets and different motivations to spend. A single price treats both as if they were identical,” writes Ciobotaru.
What both datasets reveal together
The barometer measures published rate cards rather than realized revenues—a limitation the author explicitly stresses, cautioning that “anyone promising a percentage return based solely on public pricing measurements is selling, not measuring.” STR data covers precisely the missing piece: actual occupancy and the average daily rate realized.
The two datasets do not refer to the same month—STR captures actual earnings in July, while the barometer assesses rates published in September for the upcoming twelve months—so they cannot be linked by direct cause and effect. Yet read side by side, they outline a market where 2026 growth stems from rate levels rather than volume, while published rates remain static within any given month. The most probable conclusion is that revenue growth was driven by raising base rate levels, not by dynamic rate differentiation. In Bucharest, where occupancy above 71% and an ADR increase of nearly 10% point to real capacity pressure, a grid of 2.6 price points per month leaves little room for the last rooms to sell at higher rates than the first. In regional markets, where cumulative occupancy fell to 50%, a single static price leaves equally little opportunity to drop rates on low-demand days to attract guests who might otherwise have booked.
“A single static rate is not a mistake because it is too high or too low. It is a mistake because it provides one answer, while the year poses several hundred questions,” concludes the author of the barometer.
The Hotel Pricing Barometer will be updated monthly, with the October edition set to measure whether hotels adjust rates for a given stay date as the date draws nearer. In future editions, RHN will align both data sources for the same month: published rates displayed one to two months in advance, as captured by the barometer, alongside actual figures realized in that month, as reflected in STR data received by Fivestar Hospitality—allowing the relationship between pricing strategy and commercial results to be directly visible rather than inferred.
Source: Hotel Pricing Barometer, conducted by Hotel Revenue — hotelrevenue.ro/barometru (Edition 1, September 2026).
Performance data (occupancy, ADR, RevPAR) sourced from the monthly STR report (CoStar Group) for Romania, July 2026, received by Fivestar Hospitality. Neither source identifies individual hotels.
Frequently Asked Questions
By how much did Romanian hotel rates increase in July?Nationwide, the average daily rate (ADR) increased by 8.3% in July 2026 compared to July 2025, reaching 491 RON, while in Bucharest it climbed past 544 RON.
What is the Hotel Pricing Barometer?It is an independent study by Hotel Revenue analyzing published room rates across 564 3- and 4-star hotels in 28 Romanian destinations to assess pricing behavior.
How dynamic is room pricing among Romanian hotels?Pricing remains predominantly static: the median hotel uses only two rates per month, 41% apply a single price, and most city hotels charge the same rate on weekends as on weekdays.