Hotel Video Marketing Statistics (2026): Verified Numbers Only

Most hotel video statistics you find online have a problem: follow the citation trail and it ends at another blog, not at a study. This page works the other way around. Every number below links to its primary source, the organization that actually ran the research, with the year it was published. If a famous statistic did not survive that check, it is not in the list, and we tell you exactly which ones failed and why.

The five headline statistics

The sections below give every figure its context, its methodology and its link. A number that could not offer all three did not make the cut.

Video and booking decisions

The strongest evidence on video and bookings comes from Expedia Group's 2025 study, The Science of Wanderlust. It combined eye tracking and emotion reading in a lab with a global survey of more than 7,000 travelers, which makes it the largest primary dataset on travel video we know of. The findings:

• 71% of travelers are influenced by video, versus 24% by static images. Nearly three times the influence. This is the cleanest verified number on video versus photos in travel (Expedia Group, 2025).
• 59% of travelers say content they saw on YouTube positively impacted their decision-making. Watchable content shapes choices long before a booking page is open (Expedia Group, 2025).
• Transparency (52%), clarity and confidence (46%) and authenticity (45%) are the messaging elements travelers say build trust. Polished is optional, honest is not (Expedia Group, 2025).

Worth saying out loud: none of this proves that adding a video mechanically lifts bookings by a fixed percent. What the data shows is influence. When a traveler compares two similar properties, video is the format that carries the most weight, so on two otherwise equal listings the one with strong video has the advantage.

Video on OTAs and travel platforms

Expedia accepts property videos on listings and Booking.com still does not, a gap we keep current in our guide on adding video to your Booking.com and Expedia listing. On the data side, Expedia Group has started publishing numbers about visual content and AI on its own marketplace:

• Expedia's AI Hero Image Selection lifts engagement by an average of 7%. The tool picks the most engaging visual for a TravelAds placement. It measures images rather than video, but it is a rare platform-published figure on what stronger visuals do on an OTA (Expedia Group, 2025).
• 64% of travelers have noticed AI-generated content, and 41% say they prefer AI content made with human input. Fully synthetic influencers and visuals still make less than half of travelers comfortable (Expedia Group, 2025).

Social video and travel

TikTok publishes its own travel research through TikTok Marketing Science, with named studies and sample sizes, which is why these numbers are quotable while most social media statistics are not:

• 84% of TikTok users watch travel content at least once a month. From the Travel Consumer Behavior Survey, run via Suzy (TikTok Marketing Science, 2023).
• 66% of users say TikTok is their most helpful source of travel inspiration. US Custom Travel Destination Survey via AYTM, with a sample of 500 (TikTok Marketing Science, 2024).
• TikTok users are 2.6x more likely to book an experience after searching on the platform. From the global TikTok as a Discovery Engine study, conducted by Material (TikTok Marketing Science, 2023).
• 66% of Gen Z and 65% of Millennial travelers turn to social influencers and platforms for travel inspiration. Gen X and Baby Boomers still lean on online travel sites instead (Expedia Group, 2025).

If those numbers make social feel urgent, our guides on hotel TikTok marketing and hotel Instagram Reels ideas turn them into a posting plan.

What video production costs

Budget data comes from two annual industry surveys: Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing, whose 2026 edition surveyed 266 marketers in late 2025, and Wistia's State of Video, whose 2026 edition combined 900 plus professionals with platform data from over 13 million videos. Real prices per production route live in our hotel promotional video cost guide; these survey numbers are the industry backdrop:

• Almost 40% of companies spent under $5,000 producing videos last year (Wistia, 2026).
• 41% of companies spent under $20,000 on video promotion and advertising in 2025 (Wistia, 2026).
• 24% of marketers who do not use video say it is too expensive, and 19% say they lack the time (Wyzowl, 2026).
• 58% of businesses say company size and resources hold their video output back, ahead of cost (38%) and technical capability (25%) (Wistia, 2025).
• Marketers are split on where costs are heading: 30% say video is getting cheaper, 32% see no change and 38% say costs are rising (Wyzowl, 2026).

That cost pressure explains the fastest-moving trend in the next section. An AI hotel video made from photos you already have starts at $149, which is a different conversation than the one those survey respondents were having.

Adoption and 2026 trends

• 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 82% of marketers report good ROI from it (Wyzowl, 2026).
• 92% of marketers plan to spend the same or more on video in 2026. 46% put a third of their budget or less into video (Wyzowl, 2026).
• 76% of companies publish at least one video a month. Around a quarter outsource production, and outsourcing grew 7% year over year (Wistia, 2026).
• 63% of video marketers have used AI tools to create or edit video, up from 51% a year earlier (Wyzowl, 2026).
• 41% of brands used AI for video creation in 2025, more than double the 18% of 2024 (Wistia, 2025).
• 80% of marketers use AI for content creation, and 75% use it for media production. From HubSpot's survey of more than 1,500 marketers (HubSpot, 2026).

Statistics we checked and left out

A statistics page earns trust by what it refuses to publish. These are the famous hotel video numbers we went looking for and could not verify, so they are not in our list:

• Hotels with video get 67% more bookings. The most quoted hotel video stat on the internet has no locatable primary source. Every version cites another blog, never a study. Until someone publishes the research, treat it as folklore.
• Video on a landing page increases conversions by 80%. Usually attributed to a vendor study that is no longer accessible anywhere we could find. No readable primary source, no listing.
• Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it on video. Circulates endlessly with no traceable study behind it.
• Several older Think with Google travel video figures. The original data pages now redirect to a generic homepage, so the numbers can no longer be verified at the source.
• Businesses with photos get 42% more direction requests on Google. The support page that carried it no longer shows the figure, and it was about photos, not video.

How to cite these statistics

You are welcome to cite any statistic on this page in articles, newsletters, presentations or research, with a link back so your readers can check the primary sources too. Two copy-ready formats:

• In text: According to the Hotel Video Marketing Statistics (2026) page by hotelvideo.ai, 71% of travelers are influenced by video versus 24% by static images (Expedia Group, 2025).
• Reference list: hotelvideo.ai (2026). Hotel Video Marketing Statistics. hotelvideo.ai/blog/hotel-video-statistics.

This page is reviewed periodically. When a study publishes a new edition we update the figure and the year, and when a source goes offline we remove the number instead of letting it rot. Last reviewed July 2026.