With the Milan 2026 Olympic Games done, it’s only natural to look back at past Olympic hosts in the true spirit of competition.
Much like the athletes themselves, cities are judged not just on participation, but on hotel performance. Did the Winter Olympics allow Milan to beat its personal best? In hospitality terms, did the Games push markets beyond anything they had previously achieved?
Let’s start where every Olympics begins: the opening ceremony. From Day One, Milan signaled that these Winter Games would be something special.
When stacked against prior Olympic hosts, Milan immediately stands out for its average daily rate (ADR) growth. In fact, Milan hotels delivered one of the strongest room rate performances ever recorded during the Olympic Games. However, despite that dominance, Milan ultimately finished just 2.2 percentage points behind Vancouver, which takes the gold medal for year-over-year revenue per available room (RevPAR) growth.
South Korea’s 2018 Olympics tell a very different story. While hotel demand was certainly present, the market was deep in a massive supply growth cycle, effectively sandbagging both hotel occupancy and rate performance. The result was an Olympics that struggled to translate global attention into meaningful pricing power, a reminder that timing matters just as much as demand.
When it comes to overall Olympic performance, Milan clearly won the ADR growth event but fell short to Vancouver in terms of hotel occupancy. That imbalance ultimately left Milan in second place for total RevPAR gains during the Games. Still, the margin between the two markets was razor thin. Milan’s overall RevPAR growth finished just 1 percentage point behind Vancouver, with explosive rate increases more than compensating for softer occupancy gains.
The contrast between the two markets is striking. Vancouver posted an eye-popping 58% year-over-year occupancy increase, paired with a still impressive 104% ADR increase. Milan, by comparison, saw a more modest 18% occupancy lift, but shattered expectations on pricing, delivering a gold-medal winning 171% room rate increase.
Vancouver dominated the occupancy competition, running at roughly 95% or higher every night, and peaking on Day 8 at 97.8% occupancy during the men’s large hill gold medal event and the men’s 1500 meter speed skating final. Milan hotels also peaked on Day 8, reaching 89.3% occupancy, driven by the same headline events.
Where Milan truly separated itself was on hotel rate. ADR was the real star of the show. Rates climbed year over year throughout the Games, rising steadily as marquee events approached their finals. Milan pushed the boundaries for the highest ADR percent change ever recorded during the Winter Olympic Games this millennium.
That pricing power translated into historic levels. Milan reached an all-time high ADR of €414 ($484.11) on closing night (Feb. 22), a staggering €119 above its previous peak of €295 back in October 2025.
Luxury-class hotels took things even further. When aggregated across the duration of the Games, Milan’s luxury class posted room rates well above €1,500 per night, peaking at an astonishing €1,932 on the second night. Rates tapered throughout the classes, but the signal was clear.
These extraordinary results were driven by luxury hotel demand bulldozing through the Olympic calendar, with an added boost from Milan Fashion Week spilling into the same demand window. Together, they created the most successful room-rate event Milan has ever seen, a performance that may not have taken gold in every category, but firmly secured Milan’s place on the Olympic hospitality podium.
Nick Seaman is a hospitality forecaster with STR, CoStar Group's hospitality analytics division.
This article represents an interpretation of data collected by CoStar's hospitality analytics firm, STR. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concerns.