The Swell Show

Edition 6 · Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Hotels are filling up midweek.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, 1 in 5 hotels has no room left. For the weekend, 1 in 6: about 10 fewer full hotels. The people arriving midweek are keeping the till ringing.

Morning, line-up.

Today’s story

Tuesday beats the weekend

Today, Monday the 19th: 45% of the area has guests, about 1,700 people, and 1 in 5 hotels is full. 1.7 m waves at 12 seconds, a good day to paddle out; rain in the afternoon.

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 20th: about 37 hotels are already full. For the weekend, about 26. Yesterday we saw the same thing with Monday, which filled up at the last minute.

Rentals tell a similar story: the week looks even, with guests in 4 or 5 out of every 10 places every day. For your business: Tuesday and Wednesday are worth as much as Saturday. Don’t save your full staff and big orders just for the weekend.

What to do today

Lodging
Skip Tuesday-to-Thursday promotions: that’s when hotels fill the most. If you want to move something, make it Monday the 26th, the quietest day.
Restaurants
Plan for an even week, with full staff from Tuesday to Thursday too. Heavy rain on Tuesday: have something warm for an afternoon indoors.
Shops and services
Leave flyers for your classes and tours at hotel front desks this week. Hotel guests arrive midweek looking for things to do.

The numbers

8%of hotels are full for Monday the 26th. It’s the quietest day of the week, with 42% of the area booked: that’s the gap for promotions.
56%of recent reviews come from guests from Costa Rica; US guests, 28%. In October, local travelers lead: menus, prices and signs that work for Costa Ricans too.
About 90places are free on Tuesday but already have guests later in the week. Yesterday it was about 100: people keep arriving midweek.

By price

The pricier the night, the more booked

For Tuesday, places over US$350 a night have guests in almost 6 out of 10. Those up to US$60, in 1 out of 3.

Budgetup to US$60
34%
Mid-rangeUS$61 to 150
44%
UpscaleUS$151 to 350
46%
Luxuryover US$350
57%

Share of places booked for tomorrow at each nightly rate. Every place in the area, classified one by one.

What the tide brings in

  1. In Costa Rica

    Fewer tourists, but not in Guanacaste

    Costa Rica received 118,888 visitors in September, 2.4% fewer than a year ago; US visitors fell 3.3%. Liberia airport, on the other hand, grew 11.8%: the gateway closest to the peninsula keeps adding.

    Source: The Tico Times

  2. Around the world

    Canada keeps coming

    From January to September, 227,497 Canadians arrived by air, 24.6% more than in 2025, and almost 7 in 10 came in through Guanacaste. It’s the country’s second-largest market: worth having your menu and signs in English and French too.

    Source: Monumental

See you in the water.

How we measure · Occupancy = 1 − places free for 3 nights ÷ total inventory. It’s a ceiling: some places block dates without being booked. Sources: the main booking platforms, Open-Meteo and the Central Bank of Costa Rica. Measured October 19 at 6:00.