2024 was a big, unusual year for France’s hotel sector because of the Olympics. How are hotels faring now and what should independents do to stay ahead?
After a year dominated by the 2024 Paris Olympics, France’s hospitality market entered 2025 facing a changed landscape. Following the surge of international visitors, increased short-term rental competition and record pricing last summer, the question was always going to be this: What will happen next for French hotels?
We’ve taken a deep dive into Lighthouse data of actualized hotel prices through September 2025 and advertised rates for the months ahead to understand how the market evolved across cities and segments. The findings show a market that has largely stabilized, but with important shifts in traveler behavior, demand and pricing strategy.
In this detailed market overview, we’ll explore how hotels across France performed throughout 2025, how independent and branded hotels approached pricing differently and what these trends mean for hoteliers moving forward.
Because while the Olympic wave has passed, its ripple effects – and the lessons it left behind – are shaping the next chapter of hospitality in France.
Key takeaways
- After the Olympic spike, the French market has normalized, but with large differences between months, regions and star categories. The high-end segment (5 stars) took the biggest hit compared to 2024.
- Pricing power of French destinations varies drastically in 2025: Cannes, Nice and Biarritz continued their strong upward trajectory, while Lille, Nantes and Strasbourg saw significant YoY corrections.
- Independent hotels’ pricing strategy differs greatly from that of branded hotels. By pricing too high early and dropping too steeply late, independents often missed the sweet spot where demand is strongest. Static pricing no longer keeps pace with modern booking behavior.
- As the hotel sector enters unpredictable times, forward-looking data is no longer optional. Hoteliers who still price reactively are at risk of over- or underpricing, hurting their profitability.
2024 recap: The Olympic impact on France’s hotel market
To understand the current state of the French hotel market, we have to look back on the exceptional year of 2024. In August 2024, Paris hosted the Summer Olympics, a once-in-a-generation event for the city’s residents – and hotels. Expectations were sky-high and so were room prices.
Early on, hoteliers in Paris set aggressive rates, expecting an endless stream of international travelers. But as the event approached, something unexpected happened: rates dropped dramatically. The cause? Already months before the event, a wave of short-term rentals flooded the accommodation market, drastically changing the competitive landscape as hundreds of Parisian property owners listed their apartments. In hotel terms, that wave of new one-bedroom rentals alone would be like adding five hundred full-sized, one-hundred-key properties to Paris’s already crowded landscape. By June, short-term rental supply in Paris had already more than doubled year over year.
Let’s break down what happened a bit more. By the opening weekend, prices were still around 60% higher year-over-year. However, much of the pickup came from bookings in the final month before key stay dates, after hotels dropped rates to fill rooms. In other words, hoteliers priced way too high at first and prices decreased more and more as the games drew closer.
The increased market supply, and the last-minute price plummet resulting from it, transformed behavior of both guests and hoteliers. Guests learned that waiting paid off, and hotels learned that Paris has a price ceiling, even when the Olympics come to town.
Main takeaways:
- In the build-up to a major event, hotels need to set prices that don’t just match demand, but also take into account competitors and real-time market supply.
- Setting prices too high too early leads to slow bookings and forced price reductions to reach the desired occupancy rate.
2025 in review: A stabilizing yet diverse French hotel market
2024 was a big, unusual year for France because of the Olympics. In the wake of that, it was always going to be interesting to see what would happen in 2025 – and the year did start off weak.
First quarter
Overall for France, the data shows a soft first quarter of the year, especially in March and within the luxury hotel segment. Luxury (5 stars) showed clear YoY drops, midscale (4 stars) was steadier and the economy segment (3 stars) barely moved.
— Source: Lighthouse
Summer trends
By summer, however, the market regained its balance and it was interesting to see sustained pricing strength. June was a particularly strong month and July steady, which offset a predictable August drop back to normal levels following the Olympic spike. Across the entire summer period (June to August), those moves net out to roughly flat year-over-year (–0.45%).
A closer look at individual destinations’ performance paints a more nuanced picture. Some French cities saw considerably stronger pricing than in summer 2024, while other markets priced much lower than the year prior:
— Source: Lighthouse
Paris mirrored the national trend. Prices were up in June (+23%), steadier in July (+4.44%) and down in August (-16.73%), before recovering again in September (+10.86%). Higher occupancy in June-July and only a small dip in August reflects a positive summer performance overall.
Main takeaways:
- Ripple effect of the Olympics: Paris has always been a top travel destination, but the Olympics could have drawn attention to French cities outside of Paris too.
- Markets have pricing power, but only when rates match real-time demand. The clearest example of this is Paris: prices and occupancy both went up in June and July 2025. That means demand accepted premium rates when they were set in the weeks that could carry them.
Current state
What does the French hotel market look like at the time of writing (beginning of October, 2025)? Our analysis below is based on actualized prices through September and advertised prices from October onwards.
Across 2025 (January through September), average hotel prices in France slipped -0.73% YoY. But this headline number hides important nuances:
- June (+4.52%) was an exceptionally strong month, as well as September (+1.79%)
- August (-6.36%) reflected the inevitable correction from the Olympic year.
- 5-star hotels showed a consistent downward trend (-1.60%), with the exception of a lift in June (+7.21%) and July (+2.01%).
- 3-star (-0.29%) and 4-star hotels (+0.69%) held relatively steady.
— Source: Lighthouse
When we zoom out and look at preceding years, it becomes clear that the explosive pricing growth hotels experienced post-pandemic – driven by renewed demand (“revenge travel”) and inflation – has finally come to a standstill, after consistent deceleration over the past years.
— Source: Lighthouse
City-level differences
The story again becomes much more diversified when we compare different cities within France. Biarritz (+35.72%), Cannes (+22.24%) and Nice (+13.98%) lead the market – three destinations known for glamour and luxury travel. Biarritz, with its idyllic coastal views, is clearly gaining popularity, and Cannes’s investment in events and 12-month tourism in recent years looks to be paying off.
Corsica (+10.91%) and Aix-en-Provence (+6.64%) also saw strong YoY growth, as did Paris (+4.93%). Hosting the Olympics proved to be a great learning experience for hotels in the capital and it’s possible that travelers deliberately postponed their Paris trip to avoid the Olympics. A couple of large events in the city likely drove up demand in June and September as well.
Out of the 18 cities we analyzed, Strasbourg (-14.21%) experienced the most drastic price decrease in 2025 compared to 2024. The average actualized price normalized back to slightly below its 2022 level, after spiking in 2023 and 2024. Lille (-4.38%) and Nantes (-4.35%) also saw significant rate corrections in 2025 vs. 2024, reflecting softening demand.
Want to receive weekly market reports for your city, tailored to your property? Easily monitor demand trends, competitor prices and events with our free-to-use Market Alerts Dashboard.
Diverging independent vs. branded hotel strategies
The most striking difference in 2025 lies not between cities, but between independent and branded hotels’ pricing strategies. When comparing the two, we see drastically different price evolutions as stay dates come closer.
Independent hoteliers, particularly in the 3-star category, tended to set prices high early (often 4+ months ahead) and then cut them drastically closer to stay dates – a sign of lower-than-desired occupancy due to initial overpricing. It appears they are hesitant to undercut the prices they realized last year. This trend is often a result of static and reactive pricing models or even “gut feel” pricing.
With branded hotels, we generally see the exact opposite approach: They set lower prices at first to spur demand and ensure healthy occupancy, after which they steadily increase prices (while demand rises) from around 40 days before the stay date. In the last week, they raise prices more fiercely to sell last-minute rooms at a premium when market supply is low.
5-star independent hotels are an exception, as they tend to follow the chain strategy. 3-star chain hotels, on the other hand, rather follow the strategy independents demonstrate.
The result? Guests booking a trip 3 or 4 months out see chains offering great value for money, while independents look overpriced. A couple months later, last-minute bookers see those same small and boutique hotels at below-market rates. Independents also show much more drastic price swings overall, eroding brand perception and pricing power, while chains lift their prices steadily.
These market trends highlight how important it is to take into account real-time demand when setting prices. A current global trend, for example, is that the booking window is shrinking, meaning travelers tend to book less in advance – an important behavioral shift that directly impacts hotel pricing strategies. The lag in responsiveness to actual demand fluctuations can cost hoteliers significant revenue.
How to stay ahead in 2026 and beyond
In 2025, the travel and hospitality industry has entered a more unpredictable phase. After several years of rapid post-pandemic recovery, the immense rate at which hotel rates were growing in France has finally plateaued. This trend makes it riskier than ever for hoteliers to rely on last year’s numbers or historical data when setting prices.
So, what should independent hoteliers do next to guarantee profitability and success in the years to come? In a nutshell, it will be more essential than ever to gain insight into real-time market data to inform pricing and other strategic decisions.
Hoteliers should:
- Forecast demand based on forward-looking indicators (based on flight, OTA and meta-platform searches)
- Closely monitor competitor pricing – including short-term rentals – and average market rates in real time
- Identify upcoming events that can influence compression and pricing power
Hotel chains have been practicing data-driven dynamic pricing for years, using live data to adjust rates quickly in response to market fluctuations. Independent hotels often don’t have dedicated staff to analyze market data and update prices daily. However, they now have access to data-driven automation software to compete more effectively with large hotels and chains. Adopting an automated dynamic pricing tool ensures your prices are always aligned with actual demand, not last year’s averages or intuition.
Understand your market and stay competitive with the help of Lighthouse
In unpredictable times, a strategy driven by reliable data is hoteliers’ greatest asset. But achieving that can feel daunting and even out of reach, especially when you’re already juggling so many responsibilities.
From experience, we realize how challenging it can be to operate a hotel with a lean team. Between handling check-ins, responding to emails, accounting and scheduling housekeeping, we understand how monitoring competitors, adjusting rates and tracking performance can easily fall by the wayside.
That’s why Lighthouse offers an all-in-one platform, built for independent hoteliers, to maximize revenue and minimize workload, so you can keep focusing on guest experiences. The best part? It’s all powered by the hotel industry’s most comprehensive and trusted data that chains have relied on for years.
Our solution:
- Gives you insight into your market and key competitors
- Automates dynamic price updates across all channels
- Optimizes your distribution strategy and channel mix
- Maximizes revenue and profitability with smart recommendations
- Keeps you in control thanks to customizable settings
The result is an automated data-driven strategy that keeps you at a competitive advantage and ahead of the market, no matter how volatile the tourism sector gets.
About Lighthouse
Lighthouse is the leading commercial platform for the travel & hospitality industry.
We transform complexity into confidence by providing actionable market insights, business intelligence, and pricing tools that maximize revenue growth.
We continually innovate to deliver the best platform for hospitality professionals to price more effectively, measure performance more efficiently, and understand the market in new ways.
Trusted by over 70,000 hotels in 185 countries, Lighthouse is the only solution that provides real-time hotel and short-term rental data in a single platform. We strive to deliver the best possible experience with unmatched customer service. We consider our clients as true partners—their success is our success.
For more information about Lighthouse, please visit: https://www.mylighthouse.com.
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