How Much Does a Month in a Hotel Cost? Extended-Stay Rates, Federal Lodging Rates and Fair Market Rents in the United States from Company Filings, GSA, HUD and BLS Data, 1998–2026

Long hotel stays are common among travelling workers, relocating households and displaced residents, but no official statistic reports what a month in a hotel costs. We express public nightly figures as 30-night months and set them against rent. At the 2025 average daily rate of one large franchisor's US extended-stay brands, USD 66.10, 30 nights cost USD 1,983 before taxes, the lowest of its five segments, while extended-stay occupancy was 69.1% against 55.6% overall. At the federal standard lodging rate of USD 110 in fiscal 2026, a month costs USD 3,300, 32.5% more than in fiscal 2014; in New York City the day-weighted federal rate gives USD 8,323, and in Key West USD 9,648. Population-weighted across the counties of the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia, a federal-rate month (USD 4,224) was 3.1 times the studio Fair Market Rent (USD 1,345); the multiple ranged from 2.47 in Massachusetts to 4.65 in Wyoming because the standard rate does not fall with local rents. Among 19 large metros the federal-rate month rose from 12.0% (New York City) to 88.5% (Nashville) between fiscal 2014 and 2027. From 1998 to 2025 the consumer price index for lodging away from home rose 71.3% and that for rent 152.7%. Stays of 30 nights or more produced 50.5% of one mid-price chain's owned-hotel room revenue in 2020. State and local lodging taxes stop after 30 days to more than six months of continuous stay, depending on the jurisdiction. All inputs are public.