Weekend vs Weekday Hotel Prices in 20 Cities: Osaka's Saturday Costs 2.3× Its Monday
Which night is the cheapest to stay is a question that comes up every year in travel forums, and the answers are usually one person's one trip. So we opened rooozt's own hotel price calendar, which tracks 80 properties per city for every night about three months ahead in 20 cities, and looked at how much prices move with the day of the week.
This page is about the night you stay, not the day you click book. The answer depends heavily on the city. In Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong, Saturday night is clearly the most expensive. Beach towns near Bangkok rise a little on Friday and Saturday. Phuket, Ko Samui, Chiang Rai and Singapore barely change at all. This page is not a forecast for your trip and shows no prices in money.
The short answer
In Japan, Taiwan, Korea or Hong Kong, the low-priced nights are Sunday to Wednesday and the most expensive is Saturday. Osaka's Saturday index is 2.07 against 0.90 on Monday, 2.3 times higher. Taipei is 2.2 times, Tokyo 1.9 times.
Inside Thailand the gap is much smaller. Beach towns near Bangkok such as Chonburi and Hua Hin rise 18–19 percent on Saturday against the lowest-priced night of the week. In Phuket, Ko Samui, Chiang Rai and Singapore, the Friday–Saturday median is equal to or below the other nights.
- Saturday clearly most expensive: Osaka, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Kyoto, Hong Kong
- A little higher on Friday and Saturday: Chonburi, Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Rayong, Pattaya, Bangkok
- Almost no difference: Phuket, Ko Samui, Chiang Rai, Singapore, Surat Thani, Kanchanaburi, Chiang Mai
How we measured it
Every number on this page comes from rooozt's hotel price calendar, the same data that colours the date picker on our search page. We read it on 14 October 2026.
- Each city uses its 80 most-reviewed properties among those rated 7 or higher with at least 100 reviews, the same set every night
- Prices for 2 adults, 1 room, 1 night, for every bookable night from 15 October 2026 to 6–12 January 2027, 84–90 nights per city
- Each night takes the median price of the set, divided by the median of all nights in the same city, giving an index where 1.00 is an ordinary night for that city
- A weekday's index is the median of all 11–13 nights that fall on that weekday; Saturday's index is the median of the 12 Saturday nights
- We store only the city-wide index, never the price of any single property
Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong: Saturday is the most expensive night
These six cities share one pattern. Prices are low from Sunday to Wednesday, start moving on Thursday, jump on Friday and peak on Saturday.
Osaka's index is 2.07 on Saturday, 1.25 on Friday and 0.90 on Monday. Taipei is 1.97 on Saturday, 1.50 on Friday and 0.90 on Tuesday. Tokyo is 1.59 on Saturday and 0.85 on Monday.
Seoul is 1.41 on Saturday, Kyoto 1.54 and Hong Kong 1.30. In every one of these cities Sunday night is clearly lower than Friday; only Taipei's Sunday stays slightly above an ordinary night, at 1.08.
Tokyo and Osaka: how much the start night of a 4-night trip matters
Take a simple 4-night trip using the daily indices in the table. Option one stays Thursday to Sunday nights; option two stays Sunday to Wednesday nights. Same number of nights, only the start day changes.
In Osaka, option one adds up to 5.32 and option two to 3.78, so option one costs about 41 percent more. Taipei is about 45 percent more, Seoul about 32 percent and Tokyo about 30 percent.
These are sums of daily medians, not the price of any property. Individual hotels vary, but the direction is clear: if your leave days can move, starting a Japan trip on a Sunday night saves more on rooms than booking several weeks earlier.
Beach towns near Bangkok: Friday and Saturday a little higher
The towns Bangkok residents drive to at weekends follow Japan's pattern, only much more gently. Chonburi's Saturday index is 1.17, Hua Hin 1.12, Prachuap Khiri Khan 1.08, Pattaya 1.08 on Friday and Rayong 1.06.
Against the lowest-priced night of the week, Saturday is 19 percent higher in Chonburi and 18 percent in Hua Hin. A 2-night Friday–Saturday stay in Hua Hin costs about 13 percent more than a Sunday–Monday stay.
Bangkok itself is 1.06 on Saturday against 0.98 on Monday, a gap of about 8 percent.
Where the day of the week barely matters: Phuket, Ko Samui, Chiang Rai, Singapore
In Phuket the Friday–Saturday median is 0.98 times the Sunday–Thursday median, so weekends are not more expensive. Ko Samui, Chiang Rai and Singapore come out at 1.00, and Chiang Mai, Surat Thani and Kanchanaburi at 1.02–1.03.
Prices in these cities move with the season more than with the weekday. For Phuket, pick the month before you pick the day: in our September measurement, a Tuesday night in early December in Phuket cost 2.05 times one in early October.
5 things to do before you book
If you want to use this for a real trip, do these five things.
- For Japan, Taiwan, Korea or Hong Kong, try to start the trip on a Sunday or Monday night, and if you can, spend Saturday night outside the big city
- For beach towns near Bangkok, if you can take leave, Sunday to Thursday nights are the lower-priced ones
- For Phuket, Ko Samui or Singapore, don't spend time shifting days; choose the month first
- Open the price calendar for your city, check the colour of each night, then pick your dates in the search box
- This index is a city-wide picture. Before you book, always compare the final total for the room you will actually book, because the price that counts is the one on the provider's payment page
What this page is not
This dataset has real limits, and we list all of them here.
- This is a picture of prices seen on 8–14 October 2026 for nights from 15 October 2026 to early January 2027, not a full-year average
- The window includes long weekends and year-end holidays that push some nights up. We use medians rather than averages to reduce the effect of special nights, but cannot remove it completely
- This page is about the night you stay. It does not say which day of the week to click book; we do not have data on that yet
- The 80-property set leans towards popular, much-reviewed properties and is not an average of the whole city
- On some nights only 23 properties in Taipei's set were still bookable, so Taipei's figures can swing more than other cities'
- The 4-night trips in section 4 add up daily medians; they are an estimate, not the real price of any booking
Hotel price index by night of the week, 20 cities (1.00 = an ordinary night in that city)
Median nightly index by the night you stay, nights 15 Oct 2026 to early Jan 2027 · 80 properties per city · read 14 Oct 2026 · sorted by how much weekends rise
| City | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Fri–Sat vs Sun–Thu |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taipei | 0.91 | 0.90 | 0.91 | 0.94 | 1.50 | 1.97 | 1.08 | 1.88 |
| Osaka | 0.90 | 0.94 | 0.99 | 1.05 | 1.25 | 2.07 | 0.95 | 1.55 |
| Seoul | 0.85 | 0.84 | 0.84 | 1.00 | 1.23 | 1.41 | 0.95 | 1.55 |
| Tokyo | 0.85 | 0.91 | 0.98 | 1.04 | 1.20 | 1.59 | 0.91 | 1.42 |
| Hong Kong | 0.91 | 0.90 | 0.91 | 0.96 | 1.12 | 1.30 | 0.96 | 1.29 |
| Kyoto | 0.93 | 0.92 | 0.96 | 1.09 | 1.12 | 1.54 | 0.94 | 1.27 |
| Hua Hin | 0.97 | 1.01 | 0.96 | 0.95 | 1.07 | 1.12 | 0.97 | 1.15 |
| Chonburi | 0.98 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 0.99 | 1.07 | 1.17 | 1.00 | 1.12 |
| Prachuap Khiri Khan | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.98 | 0.98 | 1.08 | 1.08 | 1.00 | 1.10 |
| Rayong | 0.98 | 0.98 | 0.98 | 0.98 | 1.06 | 1.06 | 1.00 | 1.08 |
| Pattaya | 0.98 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.08 | 1.07 | 1.01 | 1.07 |
| Krabi | 0.95 | 1.01 | 0.97 | 0.94 | 1.02 | 1.00 | 0.97 | 1.07 |
| Bangkok | 0.98 | 0.99 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 1.03 | 1.06 | 0.99 | 1.06 |
| Chiang Mai | 0.98 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 1.02 | 1.02 | 1.01 | 1.03 |
| Kanchanaburi | 1.00 | 0.99 | 0.97 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.00 | 1.02 |
| Surat Thani | 1.00 | 0.98 | 0.98 | 0.98 | 1.02 | 1.02 | 0.98 | 1.02 |
| Singapore | 0.97 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 1.02 | 1.00 | 1.01 | 0.98 | 1.00 |
| Chiang Rai | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Ko Samui | 1.00 | 1.18 | 1.09 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Phuket | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.04 | 0.99 | 1.00 | 0.97 | 0.98 | 0.98 |
The last column is the median of Friday and Saturday nights divided by the median of Sunday to Thursday nights. 1.55 means weekend nights cost 55 percent more than ordinary nights.
A 4-night trip: starting Thursday night vs starting Sunday night
Sums of the daily indices in the table above. Trip one stays Thu–Fri–Sat–Sun nights; trip two stays Sun–Mon–Tue–Wed nights.
| City | Stay Thu–Sun nights | Stay Sun–Wed nights | Trip one costs more by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taipei | 5.49 | 3.80 | 45% |
| Osaka | 5.32 | 3.78 | 41% |
| Seoul | 4.59 | 3.48 | 32% |
| Tokyo | 4.74 | 3.65 | 30% |
| Kyoto | 4.69 | 3.75 | 25% |
| Hong Kong | 4.34 | 3.68 | 18% |
| Hua Hin | 4.11 | 3.91 | 5% |
| Bangkok | 4.06 | 3.95 | 3% |
| Phuket | 3.94 | 4.07 | −3% |
An estimate from daily medians (calculated), not the real price of any booking. A negative value means trip one is lower.
Frequently asked questions
- Which night is cheapest to stay in a hotel?
- It depends on the city. In our price calendar for 20 cities (read 14 October 2026), Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong have low prices from Sunday to Wednesday night and the highest on Saturday; Osaka's Saturday costs 2.3 times its Monday. Thai cities differ by less than 20 percent, and Phuket barely at all.
- Is Friday or Saturday night more expensive?
- In almost every city where prices move with the weekday, Saturday is higher than Friday: Osaka 2.07 vs 1.25, Taipei 1.97 vs 1.50, Chonburi 1.17 vs 1.07. Pattaya is the exception, with Friday at 1.08 close to Saturday at 1.07.
- Should I avoid Saturdays when travelling in Thailand?
- Not much. Beach towns near Bangkok are 8–19 percent higher on Saturday than on the lowest-priced night of the week, and Phuket, Ko Samui and Chiang Rai barely change. In Thailand the month and long weekends matter more.
- How long is this data useful for?
- As a pattern, not a price forecast. This set covers nights from 15 October 2026 to early January 2027, which includes year-end holidays. Our price calendar updates weekly; for a real trip, open the price calendar for that city on the day you book.
Where the numbers come from: Every index on this page comes from rooozt's hotel price calendar, read on 14 October 2026 (each city last pulled between 8 and 14 October 2026): the 80 most-reviewed properties per city, 2 adults, 1 room, 1 night, nights from 15 October 2026 to 6–12 January 2027. The index is that night's median price divided by the median of all nights in the same city. This page shows no prices in money and no price for any single property. Room prices change constantly; the price that counts is the one on the provider's payment page.