Bay Area hotels continued to post strong performances this year after major sporting events came and went in the region, data shows, including a 16% increase in August in the San Jose market.
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After experiencing financial upswings that coincided with the Super Bowl in February, the men’s college basketball tournament in March, and the World Cup in June and July, August saw that positive momentum continue, according to information from CoStar, which tracks the commercial real estate industry.
“The Bay Area is definitely picking up,” said Oliver Shah, an executive vice president with Atlas Hospitality, which tracks the California lodging market. “San Jose is on fire right now with the AI boom.”
San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco and San Mateo County hotels particularly excelled as measured by revenue per available room, or RevPAR, CoStar reported. RevPAR measures how much money is earned for each room in a hotel, whether the room is occupied or not. The lodging industry views RevPAR as an essential scorecard in assessing hotel activity.
“While the Super Bowl and World Cup don’t come to town every year, San Jose is drawing an ever wider range of sports, entertainment, and cultural programming that supports our small business and hospitality industries,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said. “We will continue to lean into public space improvements and activations to make downtown an attractive destination for events of all sizes.”
Compared to August 2025, revenue per available room this past August was up 16.1% in downtown San Jose and around the airport, 15.8% in the San Francisco-San Mateo County region and 12.2% in the Oakland market, according to CoStar.
In August 2026, San Jose’s downtown and airport areas experienced an occupancy rate of 74.1%, up 11.9% from the same month in 2025, according to CoStar. The average daily room rate was $193.73, up 3.7% from a year ago.
Revenue per available room was $143.50 in August for the downtown and airport regions of San Jose, CoStar reported.
“August is the number that really caught my attention,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with land-use consultancy Silicon Valley Synergy. “We may be seeing something broader than just a temporary event-driven bump.”
Prior to the major sporting events, revenue per available room was down 2.2% in January in San Jose compared to the same month in 2025. For every month after — except a 1% dip in April — those figures continued to stay elevated through July, starting with a 28.7% increase in February.
“San Jose is welcoming visitors from across the region, country, and world for business and entertainment,” said Jen Baker, director of the city’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs. “San Jose Jazz Summerfest and GalaxyCon were two major draws in August.”
Hotel activity is an important metric when measuring the health of a micro-economy such as a city’s downtown district, according to Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group.
“Meetings and conventions are returning to San Jose strongly,” said Reay. “Foot traffic in downtown San Jose is coming back.”
Dave Mulvehill, owner of multiple downtown San Jose restaurants and drinking establishments and CEO of Nuvo Hospitality, said July and August are normally slow. Events such as the CrossFit Games and concerts in August provided a “huge windfall” for the downtown area, he said.
“It’s young people with a lot of disposable income,” Mulvehill said. “San Jose has found a niche with these kinds of groups.”
“San Jose has spent years trying to rebuild downtown activity, business travel and visitor demand, so sustained hotel performance is an important indicator of whether that is actually happening,” Staedler said.
CoStar data suggests hotels on the Peninsula saw a huge increase in RevPAR during the same month as the Super Bowl, with the NFL hosting the vast majority of its game-related events and parties in San Francisco ahead of the big game.
In February, the same month as the Super Bowl, hotels in the San Francisco-San Mateo County region saw a jump of 55.2% for revenue per available room compared to 2025, according to CoStar.
San Jose may have gained a bigger share of hotel activity for FIFA World Cup games, as the city became home to various watch parties by utilizing venues such as San Pedro Square. There was a 15% rise in June and another 29% jump in July, when compared to 2025.
Meanwhile, San Francisco-San Mateo hotels saw an increase in RevPAR of 31.3% in June and 8.1% in July, CoStar reported. Oakland hotels had a RevPAR increase of 19.3% in June and an increase of 14.7% in July compared to 2025, according to CoStar.
“Seeing this growth is a positive sign, and it’s due to a lot of work and intentionality by many partners beyond San Jose 2026 activities,” said Brian Kurtz, chief executive officer for the San Jose Downtown Association.
The Signia by Hilton in downtown San Jose, seen on Sept. 24, 2026. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
People wait at the cross walk near the Hilton in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
The Westin San Jose, former Sainte Claire hotel, in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Team San Jose, the city’s official convention and visitors bureau, has become a key player for attracting travelers to downtown San Jose, according to Kurtz.
“A strong lineup of conventions into 2027 will help continue these trends,” Kurtz said. “We need to double down on investing in our assets and quality of place to make sure they return as business and leisure visitors.”
Some events scheduled for the San Jose Convention Center during 2027 include Further Confusion, an annual furry convention; Auto Show Silicon Valley; Synbio Beta, a biotech and AI conference; FanimeCon, a fan-run annual anime convention; and GalaxyCon San Jose, a festival of fandom, according to websites for the respective organizers.
For the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, revenue per available room was up 14.6% with an average of $158.18 in downtown San Jose and around the airport.
During the same eight-month period this year, Oakland hotels posted an average RevPAR of $101.89, up 13.1% from 2025. Similarly, San Francisco-San Mateo County hotels produced an average RevPAR of $184.47, up 19.9%.
“It is very encouraging to see that there are multiple demand generators going on in San Jose,” Reay said. “It’s not just sports.”
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