We often hear about cities that get the most visitors or cities with the most total hotel rooms, but you don’t often hear about cities with the greatest number of hotels (of all kinds). When recently launching a new series here on Price of Travel of Recommended Hotels and Hostels, I noticed some cities have such a staggering number of choices that it’s no wonder picking the right hotel is as stressful as it is complicated.
So today I actually decided to tally them to see what the average traveler is up against. As a source I used TripAdvisor because unlike all the other hotel-booking sites, they actually list every hotel they are aware of, even if you can’t book it through (their parent company) Expedia or anywhere else.
Certainly there were many surprises, although I guess we should no longer be surprised by any list that China dominates these days. Still, there are some cities very high on this list that are shocking, and ones way down the list that are shocking as well. One thing that stands out is that many cities known for huge hotels (like Las Vegas) are far down the list.
TripAdvisor puts all accommodations into 3 categories, and I combined them all for this list, including hostels.
- Hotel = 24-hour front desk, private bathroom, daily housekeeping
- B&B/Inns = On-site staff, daily housekeeping (mostly family-run hotels)
- Specialty Lodging = On site staff (includes all hostels as well)
Cities with the most hotels (including hostels)
Rank – Total – City, Country – Hotel rooms/B&Bs&Inns/Specialty
- 4169 – Beijing, China – 3505/426/238
- 3127 – Rome, Italy – 1279/1567/281
- 2756 – Shanghai, China – 2485/169/102
- 1984 – Paris, France – 1847/59/78
- 1793 – London, England – 1065/381/347
- 1611 – Guangzhou, China – 1558/22/31
- 1330 – Marrakech, Morocco – 422/806/102
- 1280 – Hangzhou, China – 1155/67/58
- 1227 – Shenzhen, China – 1178/38/11
- 1218 – Chengdu, China – 1074/77/67
- 1139 – Istanbul, Turkey – 706/299/134
- 1101 – Prague, Czech Republic – 667/187/247
- 1081 – Barcelona, Spain – 547/162/372
- 1059 – Xian, China – 968/28/63
- 1024 – Venice, Italy – 510/408/106
- 1002 – Bangkok, Thailand – 638/214/150
- 1001 – Nanjing, China – 938/37/26
- 999 – Delhi, India – 517/415/67
- 994 – Florence, Italy – 480/384/130
- 976 – Berlin, Germany – 653/114/209
- 953 – Wuhan, China – 915/17/21
- 934 – Cape Town, South Africa – 227/521/186
- 891 – Tokyo, Japan – 628/40/223
- 848 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – 415/176/257
- 818 – Chongqing, China – 752/31/35
- 805 – Madrid, Spain – 457/152/196
- 770 – Bangalore, India – 500/148/122
- 739 – Xiamen, China – 521/156/62
- 715 – Chiang Mai, Thailand – 333/299/83
- 703 – Qingdao, China – 654/30/19
- 697 – Budapest, Hungary – 334/106/257
- 690 – Edinburgh, Scotland – 135/416/139
- 667 – New York City, USA – 430/93/144
- 640 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – 342/211/87
- 612 – Hanoi, Vietnam – 418/136/58
- 612 – Changsha, China – 596/4/12
- 578 – Milan, Italy – 436/86/56
- 574 – Suzhou, China – 541/19/14
- 559 – Tianjin, China – 544/9/6
- 557 – Dongguan, China – 544/13/0
- 542 – Granada, Spain – 244/162/136
- 525 – Vienna, Austria – 351/78/96
- 512 – Dalian, China – 479/23/10
- 493 – Dubai, UAE – 411/29/53
- 491 – Johannesburg, South Africa – 132/278/81
- 487 – Krakow, Poland – 221/87/179
- 482 – Mumbai, India – 369/91/22
- 480 – St. Petersburg, Russia – 216/172/92
- 473 – Kunming, China – 441/14/18
- 470 – Seoul, South Korea – 327/98/45
- 470 – Kyoto, Japan – 134/177/159
- 452 – Munich, Germany – 392/36/24
- 450 – Naples, Italy – 202/226/22
- 441 – Pattaya, Thailand – 291/104/46
- 439 – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – 254/149/36
- 434 – Sydney, Australia – 223/81/130
- 431 – Hong Kong, China – 308/48/75
- 423 – Lima, Peru – 176/116/131
- 422 – Shenyang, China – 398/9/15
- 415 – Jaipur, India – 254/135/26
- 408 – Harbin, China – 388/8/12
- 407 – Ningbo, China – 390/12/5
- 402 – Chennai, India – 307/73/22
- 396 – Patong, Thailand – 209/152/35
- 386 – Los Angeles, USA – 292/55/39
- 385 – Siem Reap, Cambodia – 165/179/41
- 385 – Dublin, Ireland – 181/129/75
- 384 – Auckland, New Zealand – 181/112/91
- 378 – Lisbon, Portugal – 209/74/95
- 372 – Montreal, Canada – 169/146/57
- 367 – Cusco, Peru – 125/112/130
- 365 – Hamburg, Germany – 320/21/24
- 362 – Singapore, Singapore – 253/30/79
- 360 – Taipei, Taiwan – 299/17/44
- 359 – Orlando, USA – 340/3/16
- 355 – Brussels, Belgium – 208/113/34
- 350 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 181/75/94
- 347 – Athens, Greece – 301/24/22
- 346 – San Francisco, USA – 242/66/38
- 343 – Osaka, Japan – 256/20/67
- 341 – Moscow, Russia – 206/56/79
- 334 – Sao Paolo, Brazil – 270/22/42
- 325 – Melbourne, Australia – 202/32/91
- 323 – Hyderabad, India – 246/57/20
- 316 – Benidorm, Spain – 205/24/87
- 312 – Mexico City, Mexico – 235/43/34
- 310 – Las Vegas, USA – 281/7/22
- 306 – Antalya, Turkey – 220/73/13
- 305 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 161/85/59
- 303 – New Orleans, USA – 146/146/11
(Please let me know if I’ve missed any cities that have at least 300 hotels)
Some interesting notes about the list
- I wasn’t expecting to see China take up 6 of the Top 10 slots, especially with a few cities that aren’t well known outside China.
- Marrakech is shown with 422 hotels and 806 Inns on TripAdvisor. This seems like a mistake but I’m not about to go in counting them myself.
- Prague trailing only Rome, Paris, and London (plus Istanbul) in Europe is surprising, although with the crowds that nearly rival those in Venice perhaps it makes sense.
- New York City (at #33) is the only American city in the Top 60, which obviously says more about average hotel size than it does numbers of visitors.
- Miami (including Miami Beach) only has 173 total according to TripAdvisor, which seems very low for such a tourist-filled area.
Price of Travel Recommended Hotels program
I decided to compile the above list (manually, I might add) after starting our new program of recommended hotels and hostels for major cities. Some people like to sort through a list of 1,000 or more hotels and then go through many of them to check locations, amenities, and online reviews to find the good ones. But many of us would prefer an edited list of hotels that are all well-located, highly-rated, and great value for price.
So for each major tourist city we are rolling out a set of 5 recommended hotels (each in a different price category) and 2 recommended hostels. We explain the reasons they are popular and point out weaknesses as well, plus we plot them all on one convenient map.
I understand this list was done years ago and will be out of date, but, Bali apparently has over 4,000 hotels and is less than a third the size of Beijing…. crazy!!
Leigh,
This list is indeed a few years ago, and it also compares cities to each other. As you probably know, Bali is an island that has dozens of cities on it, so it’s not really a fair comparison. Thanks for the comment though. -Roger
Dubai has 752 hotels now.
LV at ……87!!!!!
There are 460 hotels in myrtle beach sc
John,
TripAdvisor only counts 223 hotels in Myrtle Beach and that was the source I used for all of them so it still falls short. Thanks though. -Roger
There are 855 hotels in Antalya.Not 306
Great list – much more helpful then population as an indicator of importance for tourists. Can anyone recommend any other similar lists?
Last time I checked Montreal was still in Canada….
(Yes, Claude, well spotted! You are right. I’ve deleted that incorrect remark that no Canadian city made the list, but I do acknowledge the mistake and I appreciate the eagle-eye. – Roger)
WoW! Now that’s a comprehensive list if I’ve ever seen one 🙂
WOW. who knew that nyc had so much less? what an eye-opening article – thanks!
I think a better measure of a city’s hospitality importance is overall # of rooms. Then whether you have 500 flea bag 40-room hotels or 2 luxury towers becomes less important, but HOW MANY tourists are in the city becomes more important.
For example, though this list would make it seem like China is the world hospitality power, it is not. The U.S. has far and away the most rooms in the world, (approaching 4.5 million) and has by far the most “tourists”, though a better name might be “travelers”. The U.S. is second to France when you’re talking about International, not-domestic-origin travel.
In the U.S., Las Vegas has by far the most rooms, at 140,000. I bet that’s probably the highest in the world, too. Orlando is second, with 90,000. New York has about 75000.
Lester, I totally agree with you. I just compiled this list because it shows a different side of the picture. It’s very clear that China’s share of international tourism remains quite low. I just thought it was an interesting comparison of places that have fewer large hotels compared to crazy numbers of smaller ones.
Thanks for taking the time, and again, I agree. – Roger