What the Houston rate calendar shows
Engine measures Houston at $136 a night across 7 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026. Those are par rates, the cheapest public price offered at the moment of a search.
December averages $114, which is 16 percent below the city average. January averages $119, 12 percent below, and March averages $174, 28 percent above. The spread between the cheapest month and the priciest is 34 percent. Engine ranks Houston 30th of 50 major markets, 8 percent below the $148 median.
Engine attributes the March peak to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The rest of the year rests on energy and medical-center business travel, with the December trough. Engine states that the month of stay moves the total more than the lead time does, across the searches it measured 10 to 180 days before check-in.
The date lever
Take December where the dates allow, and steer around March. Engine publishes one monthly average for the city, so the month of stay is where the published movement sits. Send the request for two sets of dates and compare the offers.
The second half of the rate stack
The Texas Comptroller publishes four rates that stack on a Houston room night. State tax is 6 percent. The City of Houston tax is 7 percent. Harris County adds 2 percent. The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority adds 2 percent. The four sum to 17 percent.
The Comptroller states that the 6 percent state tax applies to any room or space in a hotel, including meeting and banquet rooms. Local hotel taxes fall only on rooms ordinarily used for sleeping.
ResortFeeChecker lists 24 Houston properties with a mandatory fee as of September 2026, and states that other hotels may charge fees it does not know about.
The Lobby reports 2026 OTA commission ranges for independent hotels. Booking.com runs 15 to 18 percent, and Expedia and Hotels.com run 15 to 25 percent. It also states that a Booking.com Genius booking can reach 25 to 28 percent effective commission once the required 10 to 15 percent member discount is counted.
Ten Houston properties, ordered by published nightly fee
ResortFeeChecker publishes the fee and the street address for each property. The ten below carry the largest nightly amounts on the September 2026 list, and five publish the same $29.25 figure. Each entry carries one ask.
1. The Woodlands Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton, $49.45
2301 North Millbend Drive, The Woodlands, 77380. Resort fee, nightly per room. Ask for the fee to be struck from the group rate as a condition of the first offer. Blocks lists the resort-fee waiver as a concession to negotiate, and a waiver can erase the fee line from a block budget.
2. Thompson Houston by Hyatt, $40.95
1717 Allen Parkway, 77019. Destination fee, nightly per room. Put January in the request. January averages $119 against the city average of $136.
3. The Greenleigh, River Oaks, Autograph Collection, $38.25
2525 West Loop S, 77027. Destination fee, nightly per room. Ask the hotel to state whether the local tax falls on the fee. The Comptroller limits local hotel taxes to rooms ordinarily used for sleeping.
4. Hotel Zaza Houston Museum District, $35.89
5701 Main Street, 77005. Resort fee, nightly per room. Request a written all-in nightly figure. Blocks works a $189 group rate with a 15 percent occupancy tax and a $25 resort fee into $242.35 a room night, about 28 percent above the quoted rate. Houston's published stack is 17 percent, so the all-in figure on a Houston rate runs higher again.
5. JW Marriott Houston by the Galleria, $29.25
5150 Westheimer Rd, 77056. Destination fee, nightly per room. Ask against a block of 10 or more rooms. hotelhaggle states that most hotels write group rates at 10 rooms, and some from five rooms, depending on season and availability.
6. The Laura Hotel, Houston Downtown, Autograph Collection, $29.25
1070 Dallas St, 77002. Destination fee, nightly per room. Downtown sits in the energy and medical-center demand pool that TexasHotelSearch describes as the market base. Aim the request at December, which averages $114.
7. The Moran CITYCENTRE, $29.25
800 Sorella Court, 77024. Destination fee, nightly per room. Submit against more than one property at the same time. hotelhaggle sends one request to 50 or more hotels and states that responses arrive within 24 to 72 hours.
8. The Westin Galleria Houston, $29.25
5060 W Alabama St, 77056. Destination fee, nightly per room. Use the counter path. hotelhaggle states that a hotel may answer with a different rate, and that the traveler can accept, counter or decline.
9. The Westin Oaks Houston at the Galleria, $29.25
5011 Westheimer Road, 77056. Destination fee, nightly per room. Keep March out of the request where the dates allow. March averages $174, the highest month in the Engine series.
10. C. Baldwin, Curio Collection by Hilton, $23.40
400 Dallas St, 77002. Destination fee, nightly per room. Ask the hotel to name the fee in the offer itself. ResortFeeChecker publishes the amount, so you can read the quoted figure line by line.
What the filings add
TexasHotelSearch measures Houston room revenue from state hotel occupancy tax filings through May 2026. The trailing twelve months read $1.8 billion, down 4.5 percent against the prior twelve. The site attributes the decline to the comparison year, which carried derecho and Beryl displacement demand.
First-quarter 2026 receipts were $550.6 million, up 11.8 percent year over year. March 2026 came in at $237.3 million, the largest single month in the site's nine-plus years of filings and 19 percent above the previous record.
The forward calendar carries seven FIFA World Cup matches at NRG Stadium, with roughly half a million visitors projected. TexasHotelSearch labels those promoter numbers and states the room nights are real. All filing figures are self-reported, unaudited, and restated when operators amend.
Opening a bid
hotelhaggle sends one request to 50 or more hotels, free to submit. Its home page names FL, HI, IA and WA as states that restrict name-your-price bookings, and its seller-of-travel help page excludes California with those four. Texas sits on neither list.
The home page states that no commission is added to the booking rate and lists $0 fees. The how-it-works FAQ states that hotels pay a commission to hotelhaggle when a booking is made and that the rate is never marked up. The commission falls on the hotel side.
Open a bid at hotelhaggle.org/how-it-works and compare Houston addresses at hotelhaggle.org/directory/texas/houston.
