Oktoberfest 2025: Are German hoteliers capitalizing on the surge in demand?

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The festival, which runs from September 20 to October 5, 2025, is drawing in millions of visitors, both international tourists and a strong domestic travel contingent from within Germany, which is pushing hotel revenues to record highs. 

So, let's raise a stein and investigate the impact of Oktoberfest in not only Munich, but several other cities holding their own versions.

Key takeaways

• Record-breaking attendance: Oktoberfest 2025 in Munich is poised to exceed the 2023 attendance record of 7.2 million visitors.

• Peak occupancy and pricing: Hotel occupancy in Munich will reach its peak on Thursday, September 25, at 92%, with average advertised rates soaring to €415.

• Domestic tourism's role: A rise in domestic tourism, with a 0.8% increase in overnight stays, is helping to drive demand and offset a 3.2% decline in foreign travel.

• Extended stays: Strong demand signals exist for the days immediately before and after the festival, indicating that guests are extending their trips.

• The "ripple effect": The festival's economic impact extends beyond Munich, with other southern German cities and Salzburg, Austria, experiencing significant hotel price increases.

Major hotel room price mark-ups in Munich

The original, and most famous, of all Oktoberfests is held each year in Munich. This event, a three-week celebration from September 20 to October 5, 2025, attracts a diverse crowd of millions, from local Bavarians to international tourists, all eager to partake in the traditions and consume millions of liters of beer.

The high point for attendance came in 2023, when an estimated 7.2 million visitors descended on Munich, and it appears the city is poised to reach those heights again, and potentially even surpass them.

A look at daily forward demand indicators confirms this strong outlook. When compared to the same point last year, demand is notably up across the two busiest weekends, which are typically the opening and closing periods.

For the opening weekend, running from Friday to Sunday, daily demand indicators are up by 4%. The closing weekend shows an even stronger surge, with the composite measure rising 11% year-on-year. These upward trends in booking intent signal a robust and potentially record-breaking festival period for the hospitality sector.

This surge in demand is directly pushing up hotel occupancy and average advertised rates. Munich’s hotels are projected to see their highest occupancy during the middle week of the festival, with nine out of every ten rooms sold during this period.

The absolute peak occupancy is expected on Thursday, September 25, when it reaches a staggering 92%.

This strong performance bodes well for the local hospitality market, indicating a return to the record highs seen in 2023. The financial impact is profound. Average advertised room rates at their peak during the middle week are projected to hit €415, a monumental 153% increase above the annual average.

When averaged across the entire three weeks of the festival, the price for a standard hotel room is €357, which is 20% higher than the prices recorded during Oktoberfest 2024. This significant price hike highlights the immense value that the festival brings to Munich’s hotel industry.

Part of the driving force behind this strong Oktoberfest performance may be a rise in Germans choosing to vacation domestically, with this segment showing extremely strong demand in 2025.

Data shows that across the first seven months of 2025, overnight stays in Germany are only 0.2% behind the exceptional booking levels of 2024, a year boosted by the country hosting the Euros football tournament.

The government statistics agency, Destatis, noted that in the first six months of 2025, domestic nights spent in German accommodations rose by 0.8% to 187 million nights, more than compensating for a 3.2% decline to 36.4 million in foreign nights spent in the country. This strong domestic market is a key pillar of support for the current high demand.

Furthermore, it appears that many of these guests are planning their trips to extend beyond the festival itself, as daily demand indicators are also strong immediately before the festival starts and continue well into the remainder of October after it concludes.

For example, demand indicators are up by more than a third between September 15 and 18, with indicators on September 17 specifically being 77% higher year-on-year. This presents a clear opportunity for hoteliers to induce more extended stays through strategic length-of-stay restrictions and targeted marketing.

The best of the rest: Oktoberfest's ripple effect

While Munich is the undeniable home of Oktoberfest and the largest beneficiary, it isn’t the only German city – or even the only country – to benefit from a "beer-based bump," with Oktoberfests and similar autumnal festivals in multiple German and Austrian cities also pushing up prices.

Salzburg

It’s not just German destinations that benefit from these autumnal festivals, as Salzburg has its own version, known as Rupertikirtag. This festival is set to produce some of the highest prices for the year for the city, with a weekly peak of €266 for a standard hotel room.

This is a considerable 35% higher than the city's annual average and 5% above the prices seen during the same weeks of Rupertikirtag in 2024.

Augsburg, Karlsruhe and Nuremburg

Given Oktoberfest’s deep roots in southern Germany, it is no surprise that other cities in the region are also seeing a noticeable uplift. In our data, Augsburg, Karlsruhe, and Nuremberg are all experiencing significant gains.

Nuremberg, situated just a short drive from Munich and among Germany’s most picturesque cities, is seeing the largest price uplift compared to its average annual rates.

Peak standard hotel room prices during the opening week of the festival are 59% higher than the annual average.

Augsburg is another city benefiting, with prices at the start of Oktoberfest running a third higher than the annual average, making it one of the city's key demand high points for the year.

However, it is in Karlsruhe where Oktoberfest takes on particular importance. There, average hotel prices during the week of September 22 hit €149, which is the highest price point across all of 2025. This represents a 43% increase compared to the annual average and is 18% higher than the rates during the 2024 Oktoberfest.

Like Munich, Karlsruhe is also seeing elevated interest before and after the festival. Daily demand indicators for Karlsruhe are nearly double on September 24th and 25th – the two days right before the festival starts – compared to the demand during the festival itself. This elevated interest continues for two weeks after the event concludes.

Would you like to see which future events are happening near you, and how demand levels and competitor prices evolve accordingly? Never miss a market shift or revenue opportunity with our free Market Alerts dashboard tailored to your hotel.

Maximizing event revenue with dynamic pricing

A static pricing model for independent hotels, particularly during high-demand events like Oktoberfest, leads to missed opportunities.

To maximize revenue and profitability, hoteliers must embrace dynamic pricing, which involves the continuous updating of rates according to market conditions. This ensures you set the exact price that matches demand, allowing you to both fill rooms and achieve the best possible rate.

This is easily managed with Lighthouse's AI-driven pricing tool that provides optimized pricing recommendations for the next 365 days and helps you capitalize on market shifts and events. Thanks to the channel manager integration, these perfectly set dynamic prices can be automatically pushed to all relevant distribution channels, ensuring a seamless execution of your pricing strategy without the hassle.