Best of Budapest & Hungary

Hungarians' travel mood is unbroken, the favorable weather of the past few weeks has stimulated the booking mood, which was also reflected in the July saturation and had an impact on August bookings.

Based on the latest data by the online accommodation intermediary Szallas.hu, the summer booking volume received so far is 19% below last year's record summer, and the pre-pandemic 2019 level, considered as the base, is also below the level of 2019. Lili Kelemen, spokesperson for Szallas.hu, evaluating the data, said that this year travelers started booking accommodation earlier for their holidays, but as the season approached, demand did not continue to grow at a rapid pace.

Despite this, there is a clear winner in the season: summer bookings in Visegrád (in the Danube Bend) have increased by almost 10%. Overall, Siófok (by Lake Balaton) remains the most popular destination for Hungarians during the holiday season, followed by Hajdúszoboszló, Budapest, Eger and Gyula. At a regional level, Lake Balaton is the most popular destination, as in previous years, with one in three summer bookings now coming from the lake, compared to only one in five a month ago.

According to the data, the average price per person per night in Budapest and its surrounding area is the highest at HUF 14,400 this summer. This is followed by Lake Balaton with HUF 12,500 and West Transdanubia with HUF 12,000. Lake Tisza is the cheapest in terms of average prices, at HUF 9,311 per person per night.

Compared to last year, the increase is greater for Lake Tisza than for Lake Balaton, with a 16.5% change for the former and 15.3% for the latter. The main reason for the lower percentage increase in Balaton is that there was already a significant price increase in this region last year. This year, Lake Velence is the least expensive of the waterfront regions, with a price rise of just over 11% for the summer, an average increase of HUF 1,200.

Of the accommodation types, the average price of hotels is the highest, averaging HUF 20,600 per person per night. For pensions it is HUF 11,400, for apartments HUF 9,100 and for guest houses HUF 8,800.

 According to Szallas.hu, based on advance bookings, non-hotel accommodation accounted for 74% of bookings, as in previous years, with apartments being the most popular, accounting for more than a third of bookings.