Airfare pressure builds while hotel trends diverge amid ongoing cost volatility
In today’s volatile market, even the most advanced algorithms will have trouble looking deep into the future to make accurate predictions. To combat this uncertainty, our quarterly travel price index report analyzes year-over-year shifts across air, hotel, rail, and car to provide you with a clear view of how prices are evolving in the short-term.
Market snapshot: Asia
Heading into Q4, Asia is seeing some of the strongest increases in intercontinental airfares globally. Although there have been capacity increases across several markets, strong travel demand and elevated fuel costs are continuing to put upward pressure on fares. This has been especially prominent in India, a key growth market, with airlines expanding international connectivity to Europe, Southeast Asia, and North America. Within Asia, however, domestic and regional airfare trends are more stable, with only modest increases in business class.
Hotel pricing tells a more uneven story. Although regional average daily rates are increasing only modestly, performance varies significantly by market. For example, China’s national increase remains modest at 2.7%, but major business hubs such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen are seeing much stronger growth. With sourcing season well underway, India pricing heading into Q4 presents a unique dynamic. While average Q4 rates are projected to decline year over year, early response from 2027 corporate bids are signaling substantial increases.
Rail fares across Asia continue to post the strongest increases globally. In China, most of this growth has been driven by government intervention to offset rising energy-related costs. Despite these increases, rail fares within China remain highly competitive compared to many global markets, particularly Europe, reinforcing its position as an attractive alternative for regional travel.
Want to explore more pricing trends across the globe? Access the full Q4 Travel Price Index report.
One of the biggest challenges for travel managers today is understanding how constant change in the market affects their program day to day. Using insights from the Travel Price Index, our air and hotel experts have outlined a few key focus areas travel teams should prioritize in Q4.
Air program focus areas
As pricing volatility continues to impact flights around the globe, now is the time to identify on the routes that have the biggest influence on your travel budget. Rather than chasing every opportunity for savings across your program, prioritize the international markets where your travelers fly most frequently and where fares continue to face the greatest upward pressure. Review whether your preferred carriers and negotiated agreements on those routes still align with current market conditions. This is where flexibility remains essential. Travel programs that can adjust market share, rebalance supplier relationships, or adapt traveler behavior in response to changing conditions will be better positioned to manage both cost and disruption.
Hotel program focus areas
As the hotel landscape becomes increasingly defined by market-level variation, broad sourcing strategies are becoming less effective. At the same time, suppliers continue to position dynamic pricing as the future of corporate lodging. This means the most successful programs will be the ones that focus their negotiating efforts where they have the volume and leverage to create meaningful value, while using alternative rate options, including dynamic discounts, to provide flexibility and coverage in lower-volume locations. Rather than maximizing the number of negotiated hotels, the goal should be to build a balanced program that delivers the right pricing strategy for each market based on demand, traveler volume, and realized savings.
What is an index?
As a quick reminder, it’s important to note that this report is not a forecast. A forecast uses published rates and fares, along with other socioeconomic data and world events to predict how rates and fares will change. This is an index. An index quantifies how published rates and fares are changing and avoids making predictions for long-term trends.
The Advito travel price index looks at actual, historical pricing data and compares it with future shopping data for the remainder of the quarter to analyze year-over-year variance. We are shopping millions of public price points, and our shopping technology behaves like a business traveler. Our first index was released in Q4 2022, and after a positive response from clients looking to understand pricing trends in the short- to medium-term, we have produced similar reports for each quarter.
The full report features global trends, a breakdown of each region, as well as travel sector types. In the air analysis, we look at both business and economy class fares, as well as intercontinental and regional travel. In the hotel report, we’re analyzing the variance in average daily rates between Q4 2026 and Q4 2025. The result is a reliable report based on published prices that does not make long-term predictions.
Interested in the full Advito Travel Price Index Report? Reach out to your consultant today. Not an Advito client? Access your copy of the full report with a breakdown of each region here!
