After a strong first half, year-over-year lodging room-night growth among a cohort of Emburse customers fell sharply over the summer months, the expense management company said Thursday.
Lodging nights among what Emburse called a fixed cohort of 586 U.S.-headquartered customer organizations, encompassing approximately 25,000 lodging-expense submitting employees, in the first quarter of 2026 increased 21.4 percent year over year, and increased 11.9 percent in Q2. However, that growth slowed to 1.7 percent in June, 3.3 percent in July and 1.9 percent in August.
Emburse warned that the summer figures are a snapshot that could be revised, and that its findings should not be construed as representative of the U.S. market.
Meanwhile, Emburse said lodging expenses in the first-half 2026 among the client cohort in the 10 highest-volume U.S. cities increased more than 15 percent year over year to more than $16.7 million, but average lodging expense—not just the room rate—for each recorded night fell from about $292 to $289. This reflects additional volume of trips even as average lodging expense declined, Emburse suggested.
"The 2026 data shows why room price alone cannot give finance teams a complete view of travel spend," Emburse chief revenue officer Michele Shepard said in a statement. "Companies recorded more business travel lodging nights, pushing total expense higher even as expense per night went down. Going into 2027, finance and procurement teams should look at where lodging demand is concentrated, how much activity is being recorded across their workforce and whether recent travel levels are holding."
In the first six months of 2026, nearly 12,500 employees from the Emburse client cohort submitted lodging expenses in the 10 highest-volume U.S. cities, up 7.5 percent year over year. Records averaged 4.8 nights per submitting employee, up from 4.4 nights one year prior, according to Emburse.