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Consumer Price Index
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Measuring Price Change in the CPI: Hotels and Motels
Lodging away from home is a component of the shelter index in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). It has two components: (1) Housing at school, excluding board, and (2) Other lodging away from home including hotels and motels (hereafter, referred to as other lodging away from home). The other lodging away from home index is published monthly at the U.S. city average level.
Item Definition
The other lodging away from home index includes short-term accommodations at hotels, motels, resorts, hostels, vacation rentals, and similar establishments. The item also includes houses and apartments in the sharing economy. Long-term rentals (more than 6 months) or lodging available only to large groups, institutions, businesses, or employees are excluded from the index.
Relative Importance
The relative importance of an item category is its percent of the CPI weight as of December of the most recent year.
| Item | Relative importance |
|---|---|
|
Shelter |
35.483 |
|
Rent of primary residence |
7.499 |
|
Lodging away from home |
1.292 |
|
Housing at school, excluding board |
0.243 |
|
Other lodging away from home including hotels and motels |
1.049 |
|
Owners' equivalent rent of residences |
26.282 |
|
Tenants' and household insurance |
0.410 |
Sample selection
The selection of outlets where prices are collected is based on data from the Consumer Expenditure (CE) survey. The CE is used to collect data about where consumers purchase goods and services and how much they spend. Respondents to the CE survey are asked if they took a recent trip, and, if so, if that trip included expenses for lodging. (Expenses for lodging during business trips or reserved through vacation clubs are excluded). The destination of the trip, the name of the hotel, and the means the consumer used to book the lodging are also collected. An outlet is selected for the CPI using the information for the trips that urban consumers report to the CE survey. Lodging throughout the United States as well as foreign countries is eligible for pricing.
Pricing
Travelers often do not book lodging directly with an outlet. Instead, many choose to book through third-party websites. Prices for this index are collected using the same resource used by a respondent to the CE survey. The vast majority of prices in the lodging away from home index are collected from websites. While prices in other CPI indexes are collected on a monthly or bimonthly basis, or sometimes at longer intervals, all prices for the other lodging away from home index are collected monthly.
Similar to airline fares and ship fares, prices in the other lodging away from home index are reservations for a service that is consumed in the future. The reservation criteria used to collect prices for an accommodation remain fixed from one collection period to the next. For example, if an accommodation was priced in January using a reservation date in July, then the price for the accommodation in February will be the cost of the lodging in August, and so on. The sample is roughly evenly split between reservations within 1 month of the collection date, greater than 1 month but less than 3 months from the collection date, and greater than 3 months from the collection date.
The number of nights to reserve also remains fixed over time. A small portion of prices collected in the other lodging away from home index are for 1-night stays, while the majority of prices are for stays of between 2 and 6 days. A moderate portion of prices are for stays of 7 or more days. At times, outlets may offer discounts for multiple-night reservations, especially during periods of low demand. In some cases, prices in this index include discounts such as lower rates offered to seniors or AAA membership.
The CPI is published as a tax-included index. As such, the other lodging away from home index taxes and fees. Accommodations is a heavily taxed industry, and careful attention is paid to collecting taxes and fees in this index. Taxes for traditional lodging such as hotels and motels commonly include sales taxes, occupancy taxes, and tourism taxes levied by a city, county, or state. Resort or destination fees that are paid at check-in are also collected if these fees are clearly described when a price for a reservation is collected. Additionally, prices also account for charges included for short-term rentals such as service and cleaning fees.
Price Change
Estimates of price change for lodging establishments are often quite volatile because the sample establishments tend to be in vacation areas (such as beaches, ski resorts, or other areas) with significant seasonal pricing patterns. A seasonally adjusted series is published which removes seasonal patterns. The non-seasonally adjusted series clearly indicates a swelling of prices during the spring, a mid-year peak, and decline in prices during the fall.
Data
Access data for other lodging away from home in our online database.
Additional information
Additional information may be obtained from the Consumer Price Index Information Office by email or calling 202-691-7000. Information on the CPI's overall methodology can be found in the BLS Handbook of Methods.
Last Modified Date: April 9, 2025