Overnight stays at hotels in Iceland in March were nearly 432,000 or approximately 2.8% more than in 2025 when they were roughly 420,000, according to preliminary data from Statistics Iceland. Thus, overnight stays increased by a total of nearly 12 thousand year over year.
Overnight stays increased most in the South region or by roughly 13,500 (12.6%). Considerable growth was also in the Southwest where they increased by 7.9%. In other regions, however, there were declines. In the West and Westfjords hotel stays fell by 10.1%, in the East by 6.9% and in the North by 5.8%. Little changes were in the Capital region where overnight stays decreased by 0.1%.
Foreign overnight stays in hotels were approximately 385,000, or 89% of total overnight hotel stays, which was a 4.9% increase from the previous year. Domestic stays decreased by 11.4% from a year ago to total nearly 47,000. Most of all overnight stays belonged to citizens of the USA (97 thousand) and in March those decreased by 12.9% compared with the same month in 2025. However, the number of overnight stays by visitors from the UK (70 thousand) and China (34 thousand) increased by 13.9% and 36.3%, respectively.
Overall supply of hotel bedrooms increased by 2.6% in the country in March. The greatest increase was in the South, or 15.9%. In the Capital region there was a small increase of 1.9% but in other regions the supply decreased. In the East there was proportionally the greatest decline, or 22.4%, while in the Southwest the number of supplied bedrooms fell by 5.4%. In the West and Westfjords there was a decrease of 4.8% and in the North by 2.6%. In total, there were 175 hotels operating in March 2026 with a total of 12,353 rooms which was a moderate increase from a year ago when there were 172 hotels operating in the country. A total of 58 hotels operated in the Capital region in March with a total of 5.659 rooms and 54 in the South with 3.192 rooms.
Occupancy rates of hotel rooms decreased by a total of 0.4 percentage points for the whole country. Rates decreased in all regions except in the Southwest where the occupancy rate increased by 7.3 percentage points and in the East where the growth was 4.0 percentage points. In the South there was 2.6 percentage points decrease and 2.5 percentage points drop in the West and Westfjords region. In the Capital region occupancy rates decreased by 1.4 percentage points and in the North by 1.0 percentage points. In March the highest occupancy rates were nonetheless in the Capital region (71.8%) and the Southwest (68.1%).
All accommodations
When all accommodations are considered the total number of registered overnight stays in March were nearly 656,000. This was 4.0% higher than in March of 2025 when overnight stays were roughly 630,000. Most of overnight stays were registered in hotels and guesthouses or 490,000 (nearly 432,000 in hotels and 58,000 in guesthouses). The rest, or approximately 166,000, 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. Numbers 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 March 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.