Dubai Hotel Market 2026: Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, Pipeline and Recent Sales

Dubai hotel market at a glance

Dubai went into 2026 on a run of three record years. On February 28 the U.S. and Israel struck Iran, Gulf airspace closed, and international arrivals to the city collapsed. Occupancy fell harder than in any month since the pandemic. Room rates held up much better. By late summer the market was clearly recovering, but 2026 will finish well below 2025.

Two official sources measure the market, and their numbers differ. The Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) publishes the government’s figures. STR, part of CoStar (STR / CoStar), publishes a survey of hotels, and consultants such as Cavendish Maxwell and JLL build on it. Company figures (Company) cover one owner’s hotels only. Each figure on this page is labeled, and they shouldn’t be mixed.

2025: a record year

Dubai welcomed 19.59 million international overnight visitors in 2025, up 5% from 18.72 million, its third record year in a row. DET put hotel occupancy at 80.7%, up from 78.2%. The average daily rate rose 8% to AED 579 and RevPAR rose 11% to AED 467. Occupied room nights reached 44.85 million. DET

The city ended the year with 154,264 hotel rooms in 827 establishments. Western Europe was the largest source region, with 4.1 million visitors (21%), and the Americas sent 1.40 million (7%). DET

STR’s numbers were stronger still. CoStar reported that December 2025 was Dubai’s best December for RevPAR since 2007. Occupancy was 84.3%, ADR was AED 1,042.11 and RevPAR was AED 878.19, up 15.0%. On New Year’s Eve, ADR reached AED 2,286.60. CoStar puts the full-year 2025 occupancy at 81.1%. STR / CoStar

2026: the slowdown and the recovery

January started strong. DET counted 2.00 million international overnight visitors in January 2026, up 3%. According to CoStar, hotels averaged 84.8% occupancy in January and February.

The war ended that run. CoStar reported that occupancy for the week ending March 14 sank to 22.8%, the lowest since April 2020. DET put the March average at 36%, and some hotels fell to single digits. Passenger traffic at Dubai International fell 31.7% to about 26.6 million in the first five months.

The government stepped in with an AED 2.5 billion relief package. It waived the Tourism Dirham and hotel and restaurant fees. Many hotels closed temporarily and brought renovations forward.

Recovery began in the spring. The city drew about 869,000 visitors in August, its best month since February. August occupancy of 66% was 89% of the August 2025 level. On September 21, Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar told Reuters that the company’s hotels were back to about 60% occupancy, down from 83% before the war and 20% to 25% at the low. He expects them to return to pre-war levels within 12 months.

Monthly tracker: DET vs STR

This table lists each data point in order and labels where it comes from. DET measures every licensed hotel and hotel apartment. STR’s figures come from a sample of hotels that report to it. That is why 2025 occupancy is 80.7% from DET and 81.1% from STR.

DET had not published September 2026 figures when this page was last updated. We’ll add them when it does.

Performance by hotel class

Luxury hotels depend most on long-haul visitors, and they fell furthest. Midscale hotels serve more residents, regional and corporate guests, and they held up best. These are Cavendish Maxwell’s first-half 2026 occupancy averages, based on STR data. Cavendish Maxwell / STR

• Upper Midscale65.7%
• Midscale63.7%
• Upscale58.7%
• Upper Upscale51.8%
• Luxury51.2%

Source: Cavendish Maxwell, Dubai Hospitality Market Performance H1 2026, via Khaleej Times. Bars are drawn to a 100% scale.

Rates fell much less than occupancy. Luxury ADR fell 6.2% and Upper Upscale ADR fell 2%. Upscale fell 3.1%, Upper Midscale 4.4% and Midscale 2.4% (Khaleej Times). Cavendish Maxwell says operators protected their rates instead of discounting heavily, though JLL notes that many offered staycation packages and extras such as dining credits to win local and GCC guests.

Room supply by class, August 2026

Source: DET figures presented at ATM 2026, via Emirates News Agency (WAM). Cavendish Maxwell counted 727 hotels and about 152,139 rooms in June. JLL’s Q2 count is 159,300 keys. Each source defines supply differently.

Hotel pipeline 2026-29

Developers have pushed back opening dates in 2026. Here is what three firms count:

• Cavendish Maxwell (August 2026): about 39 hotels and 9,520 rooms due between 2026 and 2029, including about 3,150 rooms by the end of 2026.
• JLL (Q2 2026): about 4,900 keys expected to complete in 2026. JLL says operators are delaying openings until demand returns.
• Knight Frank (October 2025, before the war): 12,861 rooms in the pipeline, 47% of them luxury, 21% upper upscale and 24% upscale. Knight Frank forecast total supply of 165,339 rooms by 2030.

JLL recorded no hotel openings in Dubai or Abu Dhabi in the first half of 2026. For existing owners, slower openings mean less new competition while demand recovers.

Landmark hotels

Ciel Dubai Marina, Vignette Collection. IHG opened the hotel on November 17, 2025. It has 82 floors and 1,004 rooms, and it was developed by The First Group and designed by NORR. Guinness World Records confirmed it as the world’s tallest hotel at 377.127 meters on December 9, 2025.

Gevora Hotel. Ciel took the title from the Gevora on Sheikh Zayed Road. Guinness measured the Gevora at 356.33 meters in 2018, about a meter taller than the previous holder, the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai.

Shangri-La Hotel, Sheikh Zayed Road. The hotel opened in 2003 as one of the corridor’s first five-star hotels. It is a 43-floor, 200-meter tower, and it changed hands in 2026 (see below).

For design and construction coverage, see our Architecture section.

Recent Dubai hotel sales

MMCG Invest, in an analysis Skift published, counted only five disclosed Gulf hotel deals from November 2024 to September 2026, worth about $1.45 billion, and roughly 80% of that value was in Dubai. Only one has closed in 2026. Brokers say buyers and sellers disagree on price, and that owners aren’t selling because they’re in distress.

Key counts, closing dates and the dollar price for Sofitel The Palm are from MMCG Invest via Skift (Oct. 5, 2026). The National reported the Shangri-La price as $272 million, and CoStar put it at $911,000 a key (RealtyToday).

Track U.S. deals in the Hotelier Times Transaction Tracker, the Q3 2026 hotel deals roundup and the Hotel Deal Map, and see how U.S. prices compare in hotel price per key 2026.

Dubai vs U.S. hotels

In 2025, Dubai filled far more of its rooms than the U.S. did, and its rates grew much faster. The comparison below uses CoStar figures for both markets where possible.

In 2026 the two markets moved in opposite directions. Dubai’s occupancy fell by about a third in the first half. For current U.S. numbers, see our U.S. hotel performance page. Dubai earns more per room in a normal year, but its demand depends on air travel and on events in the region. That is the risk a Dubai owner carries.

For Gulf investors: buying a U.S. hotel

Gulf family offices and funds are the main buyers of hotels at home. Knight Frank’s James Wrenn told Skift that many are building dedicated hotel investment platforms. For investors who are looking at U.S. hotels, these are the rules that come up first.

• Visas: Bahrain and Oman have E-2 investor treaties with the U.S. The UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia do not (U.S. State Department treaty list).
• EB-5: the minimum investment is $1,050,000, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area.
• Tax on sale: when a foreign owner sells U.S. real estate, the buyer generally withholds 15% of the amount realized under FIRPTA.
• Dubai’s own rules: foreigners can own freehold property in Dubai only in areas the Ruler has designated. These are set out in Regulation No. 3 of 2006 under Law No. 7 of 2006 and include Palm Jumeirah and Dubai Marina.

To run the numbers, start with hotels for sale, our hotel investment calculators, franchise fees compared and the investment glossary. For a large U.S. market, see the Texas and Houston reports.