Overnight stays at hotels in Iceland in March were nearly 420,000 or approximately 3,4% fewer than in 2024 when they were nearly 435,000. Overnight stays decreased most in the Capital region (-6.3%) and the South (-6.6%). A 3.2% decrease was also recorded in the West and Westfjords.
Significant increase was, however, in the North and Southwest regions where overnight stays increased by 16.0% and 13.5%, respectively. In addition, overnight stays at hotels in the East region increased by 7.5% in March. Overall, overnight stays decreased by roughly 15.000 in the Capital region while remaining unchanged in other regions combined.
Supply of hotel bedrooms increased modestly in March or by roughly 1,3% compared with the same time in 2024. The supply increased most in the North or by roughly 8%. In the South there was also 2.9% increase and 1.1% increase in the Southwest region. Supply of bedrooms decreased most in the East or by nearly 3%. Little changes were in the Capital region (-0.3%) and the West and Westfjords (-0.4%).
Overall occupancy rate for the country decreased by 1.3 percentage points in March. This was largely due to 2.9 percentage point drop in the Capital region and 5.0 percentage point decrease in the South. Occupancy rates increased however in other regions with the greatest increase occurring in the Southwest region (9.5 percentage points). In the East rates increased by 4.8 percentage points and 3.2 percentage points in the North. Modest changes were in the West and Westfjords where occupancy rates increased by 0.4 percentage points.
All accommodations
When all accommodations are considered the total number of registered overnight stays in March were roughly 630,000. This was 2.9% lower than in March of 2024 when overnight stays were roughly 649.000. Most of overnight stays were registered in hotels and guesthouses or nearly 485,000 (420,000 in hotels and 65,000 in guesthouses). The rest, or approximately 145,000, was attributable to other types of accommodation (camping sites, cottages, etc.).
Revision of data categorisation by nationality
Data on overnight stays by nationality is currently undergoing revisions. While this analysis is in process no data on the number of overnight stays by nationality will be published. Readers should note however that this revision does not affect the total number of overnight stays (by type of accommodation or region) but rather only the breakdown by nationality.
Furthermore, data on overnight stays by nationality is used as an input in estimating the number of unlisted overnight stays. For that reason, it is also not possible to publish results on the number of unlisted overnight stays for the month of March 2025.
About the data
All numbers for 2025 are preliminary except data on overnight stays at hotels which are preliminary for March 2025.