Overnight stays at hotels in Iceland in September were approximately 561,000 or 3.0% more than in 2025 when they were roughly 544,000, according to preliminary data from Statistics Iceland.
Overnight stays increased in all regions although little changes were in the Capital region (0.2%). The greatest proportional increase was in the Southwest region or 8.6% but in the West and Westfjords there was also 7.2% increase. In the North, overnight stays were 5.1% more and in the South they grew by nearly 6,900 or 4.5%. Lastly, there was 1.6% increase in the East. In the first nine months of the year the total number of overnight stays at hotels was 0.2% greater than at the same time a year ago.
Foreign overnight stays in hotels were approximately 513,000, or 91% of total overnight hotel stays, which was a 3.7% increase from the previous year. Most of all overnight stays belonged to citizens of the USA (188 thousand) and in September those increased by 3.8% compared with the same month in 2025. The number of overnight stays of visitors from China (53 thousand) also increased by 40.0%. Declines were however in the number for visitors of Germany (40 thousand) by 5.9% and the UK (27 thousand) by 12.9%. Domestic stays decreased by 3.5% from a year ago to total nearly 48,000.
Overall supply of hotel bedrooms increased by 2.9% in the country in September. The greatest increase was in the North (12.2%) while in the Southwest there was also 4.8% increase.1 In the Capital region the number of rooms grew by 2.3%, by 1.1% in the West and Westfjords and by 0.9% in the South region. On the other hand, the supply of rooms declined by 1.6% in the East region. In total, there were 187 hotels operating in September 2026 with a total of 12,818 rooms which was an increase from a year ago when there were 181 hotels operating in the country. A total of 60 hotels operated in the Capital region in September with a total of 5,692 rooms and 55 in the South with 3,211 rooms.
Occupancy rates of hotel rooms decreased by 0.6 percentage points overall in the country in September. Rates decreased most in the North or by 5.3 percentage points and the Capital region by 2.9 percentage points. In other regions the occupancy rates increased and by most in the West and Westfjords (5.1 percentage points). In the East they rose by 3.5 percentage points, in the South by 2.6 percentage points and by 1.4 percentage points in the Southwest. In September the highest occupancy rates were in the South (88.2%) and the Southwest (82.6%) regions.
All accommodations
When all accommodations are considered the total number of registered overnight stays in September were roughly 1,039,000. This was 5.4% higher than in September of 2025 when overnight stays were nearly 986,000. Most of overnight stays were registered in hotels and guesthouses or 718,000 (nearly 561,000 in hotels and roughly 157,000 in guesthouses). The rest, or approximately 321,000, was attributable to other types of accommodation (camping sites, cottages, etc.).
About the data
Numbers for all accommodations other than hotels are preliminary for 2026. Thus, data for hotels and guesthouses combined are preliminary for 2026 as is data for all types of accommodation in total. Data on overnight stays at hotels are preliminary for September 2026.
Data registered from accommodations can include number of overnight stays that are not attributable to any nationality. In such cases, the data is distributed proportionally onto already recorded nationalities.
1 Data on the supply of hotel bedrooms in September 2025 for the Northwest region is currently undergoing research and may be revised before the next publication on November 26. This may also affect the corresponding occupancy rates of hotel rooms in the North region.