If your 2025 meeting budgets aren’t at least 4.3 percent over what you spent this year, there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself in the hole.
That’s upshot of the meetings and events cost forecast released by Maritz as part of the IMEX America edition of its industry trends report.
Bringing together statistics from CoStar/STR; the 2024-2025 World at Work Budget Survey; the 2025 Global Business Travel Forecast from CWT and the Global Business Travel Association; and the Payscale 2024-2025 Salary Budget survey, the report includes price increases seen in 2024 as well as those for next year in four categories:
2024 Prices—total increase for meetings and events: 4.5%
Hotels*: Up 3%-5%
Air: Up 2%
F&B: Up 4%
Wages for Event Staff: Up 4%
2025 Prices—total increase for meetings and events: 4.3%
Hotels*: Up 2%-4%
Air: Up 1%
F&B: Up 3%-6%
Wages for Event Staff: 3%-4%
*The hotel increase percentages reflect locations and rates booked by groups, not the full gamut of hotel properties.
The 4.3 percent increase in overall meeting and event costs for 2025 comes with a caveat from Maritz: You could pay more depending on the location.
“If you’re looking at a major commerce hub that’s also trendy with tourists, rates will likely reflect that demand,” reads the report. It notes that in addition to big cities with bleisure appeal, costs are up at the hotel tiers just below luxury—upper upscale and upscale—especially at “major big-box brands near the heart of the city and/or convention center.”
Maritz illustrates its point by comparing average hotel group rates at the “top-five” cities, large cities, and midsize cities.
Average Contracted Group Hotel Rates
$285 in top-five cities (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco)
$232 in large cities (examples: Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix)
$217 in midsize cities (examples: Baltimore, San Antonio)
While planners need to weigh a destination’s appeal, airlift, and accommodations, meeting groups are finding notable success with midsize cities, the report says. Additional examples of midsize cities where groups are finding good value include Louisville, Columbus, Tampa, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City.
