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.
This list is utterly ridiculous. Las Vegas has single hotels with 1,900 to 3,500 rooms and a minute’s research turns up that Las Vegas has at least 150,000+ hotel rooms. How much of this priceoftravel “list” is equally ludicrous?
D Williamson,
Thanks for wasting everyone’s time. The list is not only 12 years old, but it’s about the number of hotels, not the number of hotel rooms. Hopefully you can tell the difference between those two things if you think about it. -Roger
include hostels & Cartagena Colombia might make Top 100;
The Walled City has hundreds, almost every home is a hostel;
JG,
Thanks. The point of the little study was to compare the number of hotels in major cities. You could now also count Airbnbs and such and get much different results, but that’s a whole other thing. -Roger