January Is the Cheapest Month to Visit Philadelphia, Until the Physical Therapists Arrive in February
By Matt Spaulding · November 11, 2026
Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On 11 November we read two one-night price calendars covering January 2027, both for 2 adults. The Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City-Convention Center is 2 minutes on foot from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the closest of the twelve hotels we list near the hall. Hilton's calendar showed a room there every night of the month. It marked "Best price" on four of January's five Sundays, 3, 10, 17 and 24 January, and those were the lowest nights on the calendar. Most Monday to Thursday nights sat near the bottom too. The highest were New Year's Day (a Friday) and Saturday 30 January, at the same price. Friday 29 January came next.
Marriott's rate calendar for the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 4 minutes on foot from the hall, ran from 27 December 2026 to 6 February 2027. Every night had a price. January was close to flat apart from Thursday 21 to Saturday 23, and Marriott marked LOW on 14, 17, 18 and 24 January, two of them Sundays.
All of this is two hotels, read on one day, and both calendars can change. Hilton's site returned a server error on another of its hotels, on Arch Street, and we stopped at two.
Neither hotel added a fee on the booking screens we read for 17 November 2026: the Hampton's showed no fee line and the Marriott's no destination fee. Apart from room tax, parking is the biggest extra. The Hampton is valet only, $71 a day. The Marriott's valet parks off-site at $72.58 a day, and Marriott's page also lists an off-site lot at $59 a day or $20 an hour. Room tax at both is 15.5% plus the 0.75% PHiL levy, 16.25% in all. We haven't read a January fee screen at either.
What Visit Philadelphia's numbers say about the months
Center City hotels were 52% full in January 2025, the lowest of the 2025 months on Visit Philadelphia's Market Calendar. We read the newest edition on 11 November 2026. It covers the fourth quarter of 2026 through the third quarter of 2027, and its 2025 months run October to September. In that same run, December was 54% and February 56%.
The sheet also carries a Tourism Economics forecast for Center City, made as of July 2026. It has January 2027 at 51%, the lowest occupancy and the lowest average daily rate of the 12 months. The months either side are forecast at 55% (December 2026) and 58% (February 2027). October 2026 was forecast at 78%. February's 58% is an average across Center City, and it says nothing about the three early-February nights that were the Marriott's highest.
The newest day-of-week split we found is seven years old: 2019, from the City of Philadelphia and Visit Philadelphia. Saturday was the busiest night at 88.1% occupancy. Tuesday was the busiest weeknight, at 79.4%.
Week by week, January into February
The Eagles' last regular-season home game is Thursday 24 December, against the Texans. Weeks 17 and 18 are away, so no regular-season home game falls in January. They were 2-7 and last in the NFC East on 11 November. No NFL page we read had playoff dates.
The Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention is on in the hall Friday 8 to Sunday 10 January. The show ends on the Sunday, and the Hampton marked that night "Best price".
The Philadelphia Auto Show runs Saturday 16 to Sunday 24 January. At the Hampton, both of its Saturdays were priced like the ordinary Friday and Saturday nights around them, and below 1, 29 and 30 January. The Marriott's most expensive January nights were Thursday 21 to Saturday 23, the show's second weekend. Its LOW mark came back on Sunday the 24th.
The Pennsylvania Bridal and Wedding Expo and Xcel Philadelphia share the hall on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 January. That weekend holds two of the Hampton's three highest nights. Neither Friday 29 nor Saturday 30 was among the Marriott's most expensive.
Tuesday 2 February rose on Marriott's calendar. Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 February were the highest-priced nights on the whole calendar, by a wide margin. The American Physical Therapy Association meets in the hall Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 February, and Visit Philadelphia's sheet lists it at 20,000 room nights booked through the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau. Marriott's screen gives no reason. The dates fit people sleeping in town for the meeting: the night before it opens and its first two nights. Saturday 6 February (its last day) was back at an ordinary January level. Hilton's calendar covered January only. We don't know what the Hampton did those nights.
After 6 February, where our calendar reads stop, the Convention Center's list has the SPSP annual convention (that is how the list names it), Thursday 11 to Saturday 13 February. The Biophysical Society follows, Saturday 20 to Wednesday 24 February, with 9,396 room nights on the bureau's books.
March to May
The American Society of Civil Engineers has 12,675 room nights on the sheet, for ASCE2027 at the Convention Center from Monday 1 to Friday 5 March. The Philadelphia Flower Show comes next. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's page says Friday 12 to Sunday 21 March 2027, and the Convention Center's list starts it on the 13th. The Penn Relays are Thursday 22 to Saturday 24 April.
The biggest meeting on this page by far is the American Institute of Architects, at 66,000 room nights, for its Conference on Architecture in Philadelphia from Wednesday 19 to Saturday 22 May. Fan Expo's own site puts Fan Expo Philadelphia at the Convention Center Friday 28 to Sunday 30 May.
In the 2025 numbers, May was the fullest of the 2025 months at 76%. March was 68% and April 72%. The Convention Center's own list stops at the Flower Show, and past it Fan Expo is the only show in the hall on this page. Don't read the rest of April and May as empty.
Which nights to pick
Sunday 17 and Sunday 24 January were marked at both hotels. At the Hampton, any of Sunday 3, 10, 17 or 24 January will do, and New Year's Day and Friday 29 to Saturday 30 January are the nights to skip. Marriott's LOW nights were Thursday 14, Sunday 17, Monday 18 and Sunday 24. Avoid its Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 January, and above all Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 February. Sunday 31 January wasn't marked at either hotel.
The Center City East and the Convention Center page has all twelve hotels near the hall, including the ten whose January calendars we didn't read.
