Contents
Key facts
- Swiss hotels set a record in 2025 with 43.9 million overnight stays.
- The Zurich region contributed 253,000 overnight stays, up 3.5 per cent.
- The average room rate rose to CHF 268 nationally and by more than 5 per cent in Zurich.
- These figures cover hotels, not short-term letting — useful as a direction, not as a yardstick for a single flat.
The figures for 2025
Swiss hotels recorded 43.9 million overnight stays in 2025, a record and an increase on the previous year. The Zurich region contributed a rise of 253,000 overnight stays, up 3.5 per cent.
The average room rate in Switzerland rose to CHF 268, up 2.7 per cent. In Zurich the increase was above 5 per cent — well above the national average. Room occupancy across Switzerland reached 51.1 per cent.
These figures concern hotels, not short-term letting. As an indication of how demand is developing at a location they are nonetheless usable: both offerings serve the same reasons for travelling.
Why the distribution matters more than the average
Zurich differs from holiday destinations on one point that is decisive for planning: demand does not collapse between seasons. It rests on business travel, congresses and city tourism — three sources with different patterns.
On weekdays business travellers dominate, at weekends and in summer tourists do. Anyone able to address both groups achieves more even occupancy than a property set up for one only. That bears on the fittings: a workspace with a screen appeals to different guests from a cot.
According to the 2025 surveys, cities gained above average, while Ticino and eastern Switzerland fell back slightly. The shift in favour of the cities is not a Zurich peculiarity but a pattern.
Your figures, not our examples
The calculator takes the number of rooms, the neighbourhood and the fit-out and shows you a range — with the arithmetic beside it, not as a single figure you have to take on trust.
Estimate the returnWhat these figures do not say
A national average price of CHF 268 says nothing about an individual flat. It mixes five-star hotels in Geneva with country inns in the Jura.
We therefore give no income forecasts on the basis of such figures. What a property brings in depends on location, size, fittings, season and the quality of its management — and can only be assessed with the specific property in view.
Anyone looking for an order of magnitude will find a first approximation in the calculator on this site. It becomes more reliable in conversation, with the actual flat in view.
And for your property?
Sources
State of our research: 26 May 2026. Official rules change — check the current position with the competent authority.
