Overnight stays at hotels in Iceland in October were nearly 505,000 or approximately 2.3% fewer than in 2024 when they were nearly 517,000, according to preliminary data from Statistics Iceland. Overnight stays decreased most in the Capital region, or by 4.0%, but also significantly in the Southwest (-2.9%) and West and Westfjords (-2.9%). In the North there was a 1.0% decrease but very small increase in the South (0.7%) and East (0.1%). Overall, overnight stays decreased by roughly 10 thousand in the Capital region and approximately 1,500 in other regions combined, of which roughly one thousand were in the Southwest.
Foreign overnight stays in hotels were nearly 451,000, or 89% of total overnight hotel stays, which was a 3.5% increase from the previous year. Domestic stays decreased by 33.4% from a year ago to total approximately 54,000. Most of all overnight stays belonged to citizens of the United States of America and in October those decreased by 11.3% compared with the same month in 2024. Overnight stays by other nationalities varied, with the United Kingdom falling by 8.5% but Germany and China increasing by 3.0% and 97.2%, respectively. In the first ten months of the year foreign overnight stays in hotels increased by a total of 11.1%. Domestic stays, however, declined by 28.1% during the same months.
Overall supply of hotel bedrooms increased by 3.7 % in the country in October. The greatest increase was in the South (9.7%) and West and Westfjords (7.4%). In the North there was also 3.5% increase but smaller in the Capital region (1.2%) and the Southwest (1.0%). The number of hotel bedrooms declined by 4.8% in the East. In total, there were 179 hotels operating in October 2025 with a total of 12,420 rooms which was a moderate increase from a year ago when there were 175 hotels operating in the country. A total of 58 hotels operated in the Capital region in October with a total of 5.555 rooms and 52 in the South with 3.102 rooms.
Occupancy rates of hotel rooms decreased by a total of 4.5 percentage points for the whole country. Rates decreased most in the South (6.4 percentage points) and the Capital region (5.5 percentage points). Considerable declines were also in the West and Westfjords (4.1 percentage points) and the North region (2.8 percentage points). Occupancy rates increased however in the East by 2.6 percentage points and modestly in the Southwest (0.4 percentage points). In October the highest occupancy rates were in the Capital region (80.9%) and the South (76.4%).
All accommodations
When all accommodations are considered the total number of registered overnight stays in September were roughly 793,000. This was 1,8% higher than in October of 2024 when overnight stays were nearly 779,000. Most of overnight stays were registered in hotels and guesthouses or 607,000 (505,000 in hotels and 102,000 in guesthouses). The rest, or approximately 186,000, was attributable to other types of accommodation (camping sites, cottages, etc.). In the first ten months of the year accumulated overnight stays totalled 9,260,000 which was 8.4% more than during the same period in 2024.
Revision of data categorisation by nationality
Revisions of data on overnight stays by nationality have now been finalised and all data updated accordingly. It should still be noted that all numbers on overnight stays are preliminary and can change from month to month. Also, 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 on to already recorded nationalities.
About the data
All numbers for 2025 are preliminary except data on overnight stays at hotels which are preliminary for October 2025.