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Carnival Season Demand Sparks Hotel Price Surges in Top Party Destinations – Image Credit Unsplash
According to the latest Lighthouse data, demand is surging across the world’s most renowned carnival destinations this Easter, leading to higher hotel prices and increased revenue opportunities for the hospitality industry.
Key carnival destinations in 2025 and their dates are:
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New Orleans, March 4th
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Rio de Janeiro, February 28th – March 8th
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Venice, February 22nd – March 4th
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Trinidad and Tobago, February 26th – March 5th
Across these iconic locations, hotels are experiencing record-breaking demand, with travelers eager to immerse themselves in vibrant parades, extravagant costumes, and world-famous festivities. With this rise in interest, hotels have a prime opportunity to capitalize on elevated rates and optimize revenue strategies.
Travelers flock to celebrate carnival season, with hotel prices to match
We’ve identified these locations as the hottest spots for carnivals in 2025 because they are experiencing a surge in demand – both compared to other times of year and to previous carnival seasons.
With celebrations shifting about two weeks later than in 2024 due to the holiday’s ties to the Christian calendar, this year’s demand patterns are particularly striking.
Our first chart highlights the biggest spikes in demand, particularly during the final weekend of carnival. While year-over-year (YoY) comparisons are complicated by the calendar shift, the data still showcases an undeniable increase in traveler interest.
Across these locations demand is down Year-on-Year (YoY) in mid-February due to the aforementioned calendar adjustment (in 2024, the final weekends largely occurred on 10th and 11th). However, this trend reverses sharply toward the end of February and early March, aligning with the peak party periods.
Our daily demand indicator metric reveals a surge in interest across all locations, with demand peaking over the weekend of March 1- 2. The most in-demand day sees staggering YoY increases:
With just under a month to go, high demand is translating into strong occupancy rates.
The final weekend of carnival is especially impacted, with many hotels either sold out or enforcing restrictions, underlining just how critical carnival is for hotel demand in Q1 across all four destinations.
The majority of hotels in all four locations are listed as unavailable at the time of writing, ranging from 60% unavailability in Venice to 86% in New Orleans during the final weekend.
A major opportunity for hotels to float higher prices and secure more revenue
Naturally, such extreme demand and high occupancy rates are boosting room prices for hotels and potentially giving those with remaining inventory a chance to put even higher rates in place.
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In New Orleans, the peak advertised rate of $602 is on par with Super Bowl weekend pricing ($601).
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In Venice, the highest rates among all four locations reach $633 for the final carnival weekend.
To highlight the scale of these pricing jumps, comparing carnival rates to daily average actualized or advertised prices in Q1 shows dramatic increases.
In Rio de Janeiro, the final weekend of carnival is 155% more expensive than the Q1 average.
There may even be potential to boost rates further, most notably in the case of Rio. In 2024 Rio’s carnival period ran from February 10-18th, whereas in 2025 it is scheduled from February 28th to March 8th.
Despite this, daily demand indicators are up YoY for the period February 11-18th, often by double digits.
This potentially indicates tourists arriving earlier for the carnival period and a generally higher level of interest in this year’s event. Coupled with massive YoY demand spikes on actual parade days, there’s a strong case for Rio’s hospitality market experiencing an even more lucrative season than before.
The importance of demand and pricing data to capitalize on events in your market
These trends reinforce the critical importance of optimizing pricing for major cultural events. With travelers increasingly prioritizing unique experiences, underpricing rooms means leaving revenue on the table.
By leveraging Lighthouse data, you can set the right rates at the right time, capturing the full revenue potential of these high-demand moments.
No matter the event you’re planning for, Lighthouse has you covered.
About Lighthouse
Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight) is the leading commercial platform for the travel & hospitality industry. We transform complexity into confidence by providing actionable market insights, business intelligence, and pricing tools that maximize revenue growth. We continually innovate to deliver the best platform for hospitality professionals to price more effectively, measure performance more efficiently, and understand the market in new ways.
Trusted by over 65,000 hotels in 185 countries, Lighthouse is the only solution that provides real-time hotel and short-term rental data in a single platform. We strive to deliver the best possible experience with unmatched customer service. We consider our clients as true partners – their success is our success.
