As visitors explore their options, the emergence of changes in Myrtle Beach hotels 2026 will play a crucial role in shaping their experiences.

The Myrtle Beach hotel scene a traveler books in 2026 looks different from the one they remember in 2019. New brand flags fly on familiar oceanfront buildings. Rooms behind those flags have been gutted and rebuilt. And the rates, after a sharp pandemic-era spike, have eased off the 2021 peak even as the upper end of the market keeps climbing.

The recovery has not been even. According to a May 2026 analysis by hospitality consulting firm HVS, the Grand Strand is working through what Brett Testa, senior project manager in HVS’s Atlanta office, calls a K-shaped recovery — upper-market branded properties have moved past their 2019 numbers, while the broader market still sits below them. For visitors, that split shapes nearly every booking decision: where the polished rooms are, where the deals are, and which corner of the market is competing hardest for the night.

The Future of Myrtle Beach Hotels 2026

## The boom that didn’t last (and why)

Myrtle Beach hotels 2026 are expected to continue evolving, catering to new trends and preferences among travelers.

The pandemic years were unusually good to Myrtle Beach hoteliers. Drive-in leisure demand surged across the Southeast in 2020 and 2021, and the Grand Strand absorbed a large share of it. Per the HVS analysis, average daily rate in Myrtle Beach climbed 21.3 percent above 2019 levels by 2021. Total room revenue topped $1.1 billion that same year, a peak the market has not retouched since.

The slope on the other side has been steady. Occupied room nights, which crossed 7.5 million at the 2019 peak, fell to under 6.5 million in 2025, according to HVS. Total revenue eased to roughly $990 million. Hotel occupancy was off 3.3 percent year over year, and the citywide accommodations tax — a clean proxy for paid lodging activity — came in 10.8 percent lower than the prior year. The city’s tourism development fee revenue followed the same direction, down 4.4 percent.

The macro drivers behind the pullback are not unique to the Grand Strand. Leisure travel has normalized away from drive-in southeastern destinations as international and long-haul trips rebounded. Elevated interest rates and lingering inflation fatigue have trimmed the discretionary travel budgets of middle-market households. The result is a market that is still healthy by any pre-pandemic measure, but no longer running at the heat of the 2021 boom.

## The K-shaped recovery, explained

The phrase HVS uses for what comes next is **K-shaped recovery**. The two arms of the K move in opposite directions: the upper arm rising, the lower arm falling or flat. Applied to a hotel market, it describes a split in which the top tier is pulling ahead while the broader middle and lower tiers lag.

Per the HVS May 2026 analysis, upper-market branded hotels in Myrtle Beach surpassed their 2019 figures in supply, demand, and revenue through the first quarter of 2026. The rest of the market — older independent properties, dated mid-tier inventory, and the long tail of small motels — remained below 2019. The gap is not a temporary lag. It reflects a sustained shift in where guests are willing to spend.

For someone choosing a room, the practical effect is simple. The polished end of the market is deeper than it has ever been, with more brand-managed inventory, more recent renovations, and stricter quality standards under each flag. The middle and lower end of the market is competing harder on price, which often makes for the best deals a budget-conscious traveler has seen since 2020 — but with wider variation in condition from one property to the next.

The split also shows up in how the two arms market themselves. Upper-tier properties lean on the brand promise — Hilton, IHG, Best Western Signature — and on photographic evidence of recent renovation. Older mid-tier and independent operators lean harder on rate, often through third-party booking sites and shoulder-season packages. A guest comparing two oceanfront listings at similar nightly rates in 2026 is increasingly comparing two different recoveries.

## What’s new on the boardwalk

Several familiar buildings now operate under different names, different flags, or with substantially renovated interiors. The changes matter for booking because brand affiliation often determines loyalty points, refund rules, and the baseline of what a room looks like.

The **Dayton House Resort** joined Best Western’s upper-tier Signature Collection in 2023, according to coverage compiled by Hotel-Online. The longtime DoubleTree Resort at Springmaid Beach reopened in July 2024 as a dual-flag 452-room property — 238 rooms now operate as The Ellie Beach Resort, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, with the remaining 214 rooms continuing under the DoubleTree by Hilton flag. The Sandcastle Oceanfront Resort at the Pavilion has been reflagged as voco The Shelby, part of IHG’s voco upscale collection.

The Sea Dip site was sold in February 2025 to Drury Development Corporation, the development arm of the family-owned Missouri-based hotel chain. Per Post & Courier reporting, the company plans a 400-unit oceanfront hotel under its Drury Plaza Hotel brand on the 2.3-acre site, with the planned unit development projected to build out over roughly 10 years. Hilton Grand Vacations has a planned ground-up rebuild of the former Boardwalk Beach Resort site, branded Ocean 23, expected to add roughly 228 rooms and suites when it opens. Per Post & Courier reporting, the $230 million project has faced construction delays tied to natural-gas-supply issues and a sharp rise in build costs.

A Margaritaville Beach Resort is also planned for Ocean Boulevard, though the project has not been confirmed as under construction. The Myrtle Beach Area CVB has tallied more than $100 million in new hotel and renovation investment across the Grand Strand in recent years, an aggregate figure that includes both completed projects and ones still in planning.

What these moves share is a shift toward brand-managed inventory in places that previously operated as independents. Each reflag carries through to the guest experience — published standards for room condition, consistent housekeeping protocols, points-program eligibility, and predictable booking and cancellation terms. For a returning visitor who last stayed at one of these properties before 2020, the building may look familiar from the boardwalk; the room behind the door and the program around the stay will not.

## What the numbers mean for your trip

The Grand Strand carries an unusually deep inventory by any U.S. coastal-market standard — more than 157,000 accommodation units across roughly 425 hotels, condos, villas, and home rentals, according to the Myrtle Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. That depth is what makes the K-shape visible to a traveler. There is more room at the top, and more competition at the bottom, than in almost any comparable destination.

For an upper-tier traveler, the practical takeaway is selection. Recent reflags have brought Hilton Tapestry, IHG voco, and Best Western Signature Collection options to the oceanfront, sitting alongside Hilton Grand Vacations’ new-build inventory and the incoming Drury property. Loyalty members in those programs can now book the Grand Strand without giving up their points or status — a change from a market that, a decade ago, was dominated by independent operators.

For a mid-market or budget traveler, the takeaway is leverage. With the broader market still below 2019 in revenue and occupancy, posted rates outside the upper tier have come off the 2021 spike. Shoulder-season weeks in April, May, September, and October — the months that bracket the peak — show the softness most clearly. A traveler willing to inspect recent reviews and photographs of mid-tier properties can find well-maintained rooms at rates that would not have cleared the market in 2021 or 2022.

The math behind those rates is the K itself. When citywide accommodations tax is down 10.8 percent year over year while upper-tier branded inventory keeps growing, the implication is that the softness is concentrated outside the top tier. That is where a guest doing their own research has the most room to negotiate — in mid-tier weekday stays, in longer-stay discounts, and in package rates that bundle parking, resort fees, and breakfast.

The visitor base itself argues against a slump narrative. The Myrtle Beach Area CVB and the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce reported 18.2 million visitors to the destination in 2024, a record, with roughly two-thirds returning from prior trips. Direct visitor spending reached $13.2 billion that year, a 5.3 percent increase over 2023, with total economic impact, including indirect and induced spending, topping $26 billion. The hotel side of the ledger has softened from its 2021 high, but the destination itself continues to draw at scale.

## Conclusion

The story of the Myrtle Beach hotel market over the next year is whether the K stays K-shaped or whether the lower arm begins to catch up. The upper-tier story is still building. The planned Drury Plaza Hotel on the Sea Dip site, the Hilton Grand Vacations Ocean 23 rebuild, and the planned Margaritaville on Ocean Boulevard all point to continued investment at the polished end — though each of those three projects is on a multi-year horizon and is not yet bookable. The renovation cycle on older properties looks likely to continue as owners weigh the cost of refreshing inventory against the rates the unrefreshed version can command.

For a traveler in 2026, the upshot is straightforward. The upper tier of the Grand Strand has more brand-managed, recently renovated rooms than it has ever offered. The broader market is competing harder on price than it has in years. Knowing which arm of the K a property sits on — and what that means for the room, the rate, and the loyalty program behind it — is now part of booking a Myrtle Beach trip.

## Further Reading

– HotelNewsResource — “The K-Shaped Recovery of Myrtle Beach’s Hotel Market” (HVS / Brett Testa, May 19, 2026): https://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article141297.html

– Hotel-Online — K-Shaped Recovery piece: https://www.hotel-online.com/news/the-k-shaped-recovery-of-myrtle-beachs-hotel-market

– Hotel-Online — “Renovations, Sales and More. These 12 Myrtle Beach Hotels Are Making Changes”: https://www.hotel-online.com/news/renovations-sales-and-more-these-12-myrtle-beach-hotels-are-making-changes

– Travel Daily News — “Myrtle Beach enters new hospitality era with major hotel investments and renovations”: https://www.traveldailynews.com/hospitality/myrtle-beach-enters-new-hospitality-era-with-major-hotel-investments-and-renovations/

– Tourism Works for The Grand Strand — 2024 Recap: https://www.tourismworksforthegrandstrand.com/tourism-news/building-momentum-at-the-beach-the-2024-recap/

– WBTW — Myrtle Beach 2025 tourism dip: https://www.wbtw.com/news/grand-strand/myrtle-beach/myrtle-beach-sees-dip-in-2025-tourism-numbers-chamber-of-commerce-says/

– Myrtle Beach Area CVB Industry Research: https://www.myrtlebeachareacvb.com/industry-research/