UK Hotel Bookings Point to Confident Summer Demand and Stronger September: SiteMinder

Posted on 12th June 2026 in Industry News

New data from SiteMinder, the world’s leading hotel commerce platform, reveals UK hotels are entering the summer with steady demand and greater booking confidence, as cancellation rates fall and September emerges as the clearest opportunity for hoteliers.

The mid-year edition of SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report is based on more than 1.5 million reservations at the same UK hotels between June and September in 2025 and 2026 respectively. It finds that UK hotel bookings are up 0.7% year-on-year across the period, while average daily rate remains resilient at £254, up 0.3% on last year.

The most notable shift is in cancellation behaviour. While cancellations are rising across most European markets analysed by SiteMinder, the UK is moving in the opposite direction, with cancellation rates falling from 19.9% to 19% year-on-year. The decline suggests UK hotels are seeing more committed demand at a time when global travel conditions are becoming harder to predict.

September is looking to be the standout month for the UK, with bookings up 2.7%, room nights also up 2.7%, the average daily rate rising 3.1% to £251, and cancellation rates down 1.75% year-on-year to 16.7%. This correlates with a higher proportion of international travellers, increasing to 46% in September this year from 42% in the same month in 2025.

Further analysis of SiteMinder’s UK data shows that:

Average daily rate remains stable across the period, rising from £253 to £254. With September leading the rate growth, June and July also remain ahead of last year, at £250 and £261 respectively.
Cancellation rates are falling in three of the four months analysed. In addition to the positive data for September, July cancellations are down 1.72% and August is down 2.28%.
The UK remains a majority-domestic market, with domestic travellers accounting for 56.68% of check-in bookings across the period. Domestic share is strongest in July, at 59%, while international travellers account for their highest share in August, at 47%.
The UK remains one of the world’s most short-stay-heavy hotel markets, with average length of stay at 1.71 nights, compared with 1.74 nights last year. This direction of movement mirrors regional trends with Europe as a whole seeing average length of stay fall to 2.2 nights, from 2.3 the year prior.

SiteMinder’s VP of ecosystem and strategic partnerships, James Bishop, says: “For UK hoteliers, the outlook this summer is one of stability and confidence. Bookings are ahead compared to last year, rates are steady, and, importantly, cancellations are falling despite less predictability in many other markets. This gives hotels a stronger foundation to plan from, especially as demand becomes more selective globally.”

Bishop concludes: “With short stays continuing to drive the UK market, growth isn’t just about more bookings, but using real-time market intelligence to increase the value of each night booked, while enticing guests to stay that extra night where possible. Hotels that are able to promote the right offers, upgrades and experiences before and during a guest’s visit will be best placed to turn steady demand into stronger revenue.”

The mid-year edition of SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report is based on data from SiteMinder’s platform, which generates 135 million hotel bookings each year. The report analyses forward bookings for stays between June and September 2026 across 22 key tourism markets in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe.

The mid-year edition of SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends is available here.