Hotel rates slid last summer for first time in four years
Thursday, 02 Jan, 2009
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The average price for hotel rooms across the world fell during summer 2008, according to a new study.
This was the first year-on-year drop in prices measured in any quarter since the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index started in January 2004.
The average price paid by travellers for a room during July-September 2008 fell by 3% globally against the same quarter in 2007.
But the weakness of the pound over the course of the third quarter of 2008 meant that UK travellers have yet to feel the effect of the global fall in hotel costs.
A combination of slight real price rises in Europe – which bucked the global trend – and the stronger Euro meant that prices for UK travellers in some European destinations rose by as much as 30%.
The report showed that the global drop in rates was driven by falls in room prices in across North America, including hotels in New York and Las Vegas hotels, where prices fell by 5%, Latin America, where prices were down 1% and the Caribbean, with prices down 4%. Prices in Asia, meanwhile, were flat.
Hotels.com president David Roche said: "Hotels in the Americas in particular have been feeling the effects of the wider global downturn for the past six to nine months and we have seen extensive price cutting already.
“US hoteliers may have to cut prices further to maintain occupancy in the month to come.
"In Europe, by contrast, hoteliers have had to cut less, with a reasonably strong summer performance – the traditional European travel peak – helping them to maintain their rates.
"However, European prices are now starting to come down and there are likely to be an increasing number of good deals to be found across the continent’s major travel destinations.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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