Overall business travel cost increases accelerated in the second quarter, with hotel rates in major cities for business travel expected to rise further in 2026, according to American Express Global Business Travel's Business Travel Pulse report, published on Tuesday (26 August).

The Pulse's business travel price index ¨C based on data from Amex GBT's data lake combined with analysis by its consulting team ¨C shows that business travel prices were up 2.6 per cent year over year in the second quarter, up from a 0.6 per cent year-over-year increase in the first quarter.?

The index score gives airfares a weight of 65 per cent, hotel rates a weight of 25 per cent and the remaining 10 per cent split evenly between rail and car rental prices.

The report also highlighted the cities that are projected to see the largest increases in hotel prices in 2026, using its data along with inflation and GDP forecasts from the International Monetary Fund and modelled with open-source software Prophet.?

In North America, Amex GBT projects the largest increases will be in Toronto (5.8 per cent) and New York (4 per cent). In Europe, Amex GBT projects hotel prices will increase 4.8 per cent year over year in Madrid, 4.2 per cent year over year in London, 3.7 per cent year over year in Berlin and 2.4 per cent year over year in Paris.

Other global cities in the report projected to have hotel cost increases above 4 per cent year over year include Buenos Aires (5.6 per cent), Rio de Janeiro (5 per cent), Cape Town (4.7 per cent) and Bengaluru (6.4 per cent).