Last week marked Europe’s worst ever heatwave, an increasingly common occurrence made worse by the region’s infrastructure. The dangerous weather started around 20 June in the Iberian Peninsula and spread north over the following week, with record-breaking temperatures recorded across nearly 20 countries.
Elevated overnight temperatures, buildings designed to capture and hold heat, and housing not designed with or to use air conditioners all contributed to an uncomfortable and potentially dangerous week for residents.
Travelers were affected, too. While air conditioning is more frequently found in hotels than in homes, many museums and attractions closed either early or entirely, depending on the day and the temperature.
The region’s hotel industry, however, showed little to no negative impact.
High-end hotel occupancy increased year over year during each night of the week ending 27 June, a sign of continued international inbound travel, as well as corporate and group demand.
Select service and budget hotels reported occupancy declines during the midweek, but growth from Thursday to Saturday points to rising leisure travel.
Capital markets maintain demand
At the market level, Southern and Eastern European capitals reported the highest weekly occupancy growth, with Northern destinations largely losing occupancy relative to 2025. However, many markets’ occupancy growth followed trends established over the last three weeks, suggesting limited to no impact from the heatwave.
Among the outliers were Amsterdam, Brussels, and Prague, all of which reported occupancy growth well ahead of their monthly average due to double-digit growth over the weekend. The stronger weekends could point to ‘staycations’, as residents escaped their overheated homes to temperature-controlled hotels.
Even among the worst-performing markets, heat-related impacts are not immediately evident. Most of the outlying markets like Bratislava, Oslo Area, Tallinn, and Vilnius show bigger occupancy declines for the week ending 27 June due to event offsets or high supply growth.
Coastal market demand spikes
A combination of heat and seasonality pushed more travelers to coastal destinations last week, with nine of 10 markets reporting occupancy growth this week significantly higher than the last three weeks.
Cyprus marked the biggest turnaround, helped in part by the peace agreement between the U.S. and Iran. Occupancy had first started declining in March and fell 9.2% year-over-year through the first three weeks of June.
French hotels perform well despite extreme heat
While all of Europe was impacted by the heat wave, France was one of the hardest-hit countries and recorded the continent’s highest temperature last week.
Hotel demand remained stable despite the heat, with occupancy rising 2.0% to 79.9%, the highest growth rate among the big five countries and one of the top growth rates in Europe.
That growth was relatively widespread across the country, with occupancy in Paris and other cities climbing. Coastal market occupancy performed best, helped along in no small part by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the Antibes/Cannes submarket. Submarket occupancy grew 15.2% year over year, the third highest among all French submarkets, to reach 88.5%.
International demand and staycation demand drove the weekly growth. Luxury and upper upscale hotel occupancy rose 5.2% for the week, closely trailed by the midscale and economy classes at 3.6% growth.
The latter points to staycation travel, as residents look for budget-friendly relief from the heat. Recent trends support this, as midscale and economy class occupancy has largely been flat to down through the rest of June and only started rising year over year in the last week. At the market level, midscale and economy hotels posted the highest occupancy growth of all classes across seven of 11 markets.
Fashion week makes Paris performance a success
Extreme heat couldn’t stop fashion week, and the quarterly event — held over the same days last year — drove Paris occupancy to 91.3%, the highest weekly occupancy level across all European markets.
Midweek occupancy was flat to down, with weekends rising 3.1% year over year to lift the week 0.7% relative to 2025. The modest declines are likely not related to the heat but instead caused by actual occupancy. It’s very common to see small year-over-year fluctuations at higher occupancy levels, and Paris occupancy averaged 92.2% from Monday through Wednesday.
Four of eight submarkets reported declining occupancy. However, all four markets reported similar declines over the first three weeks of June, suggesting last week’s decline is unrelated to the heatwave.
While Europe’s biggest heatwave this year made for an incredibly challenging week for residents, hotel occupancy was not negatively impacted. Coastal markets modestly benefited, as did midscale and economy hotels as residents looked for ways to beat the heat.