The share of Americans planning a summer vacation with at least one night of paid lodging has fallen to its lowest point in six years, driven by a cost barrier that is sidelining millions of would-be travelers while a smaller, more determined group spends its way through rising prices.
Deloitte’s survey of 4,003 Americans, fielded from April 2 to April 9, 2026, found that 45% of respondents are planning vacations with stays in paid lodging, the lowest in the last six years. The findings are published in Deloitte’s 2026 Summer Travel Survey, titled “Flight or Fold: Travelers Navigate Pricing Pressure.”
Cost is the deciding factor
Rising costs are the primary driver keeping non-travelers home, with 32% citing travel as too expensive and 35% saying they cannot afford it. The dual pressure of everyday expenses and travel-specific inflation is hitting broadly across the income spectrum.
Travel incidence is down across all income levels but is most pronounced among households earning less than $100,000 per year, falling eight percentage points year-over-year, compared to a four-point decline each for middle- and high-income earners.
The hesitation extends even to middle-income earners who in past years maintained stronger vacation participation. Middle-income earners ($100,000, $199,000) surveyed exhibited the biggest booking progress gap, with only 37% fully booked compared to 45% at the same point in 2025.
Travelers in the $100,000 to $199,000 income group may be experiencing the greatest conflict between their travel preferences and their ability to afford them, according to Deloitte’s analysts.
Those going are spending more
The retreat from paid vacations does not mean travelers are scaling back their ambitions. Among the 45% who are still going, spending intentions are running ahead of last year’s levels, with travelers anticipating spending an average of $4,049 on their longest summer trip, up 17% from 2025.
About one in four travelers plan to significantly raise trip budgets, up five percentage points from last year, driven largely by higher airline and lodging prices. Those budget increases are directed toward enhanced experiences. Air travelers expected to purchase more first-class or business-class fares and tickets with upgrades for their marquee summer trips.
One-third of travelers (34%) plan to work during their longest summer trip, up from 23% in 2025.
The blending of work and leisure, sometimes called “workcation” travel, is increasingly common among remote-capable employees seeking to stretch limited vacation budgets across longer stays. That pattern mirrors a broader shift in how work and time away from home overlap, a dynamic that has also driven the rising financial cost of office commuting for millions of workers who still make the trip in person.
Booking hesitancy signals price sensitivity
Compared to 2025, travelers showed more hesitancy to complete bookings in advance, a possible sign of price sensitivity. Among respondents, 35% of marquee trips were fully booked, down from 39% the year before.
That hesitancy is compounded by friction in the booking process itself. A separate Fullstory survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers, conducted in May 2026, found that 61% of respondents cited hidden or unexpected fees as their top frustration when booking travel, ahead of delayed or unhelpful customer service, which ranked second at 37%.
The hidden fee problem is not new, as regulatory scrutiny of drip pricing in hospitality has been ongoing for several years. The Fullstory data quantifies just how central the issue remains to the booking experience in 2026.
Hidden fees (61%), poor customer service (37%), and late-stage price changes (31%) are the top reasons travelers abandon bookings, according to the Fullstory survey.
Loyalty programs remain a bright spot
Despite the cautious mood, about 8 in 10 travelers (78%) were members of at least one travel provider loyalty program. Hotel loyalty programs had the highest share at 55%, followed closely by airlines at 51%. Loyalty benefits and rewards are widely seen as one of the few tools travelers can use to offset rising sticker prices without canceling plans entirely.
The Deloitte findings add a specific travel dimension to a wider pattern of cost-conscious behavior reshaping American spending choices. The desire to explore remains strong, though cost concerns are reshaping how and where people choose to visit.
For the travel and hospitality industry, the summer of 2026 is shaping up as a season defined less by volume and more by the intensity of a smaller, higher-spending traveler pool. Millions of potential guests quietly decided the math did not work this year, a pattern that echoes the broader trend of Americans spending more time at home rather than out in the world.
