In the HRS quarterly hotel price analysis for Q2 2017, all top destinations in Ireland showed an increase, with Dublin rates higher than London at €213 and up 9.2% compared to last year. Despite the UK’s turbulent last few months, which saw terrorist attacks in London and Manchester, average hotel rates there saw a 3% increase compared with last year.
All hotel bookings in the period 1st April to 30th June 2017 that were not cancelled were surveyed. Single as well as double rooms, with and without breakfast, in 1-star to 5-star hotels were considered in the selection and destinations with a correspondingly high booking volume were evaluated.
UK
Keith Watson, Director, Hotel Solutions, HRS, said: “The Easter break fell into this analysis so we expected to see an increase following the Q1 results, in which all rates in the UK were showing a decline.”
Reading, the host of several headquarters of British and multinational companies, led the way with the largest rate increase of +25.5%, followed by Edinburgh and London, while Liverpool saw the biggest drop (-11.8% / €97) followed by Glasgow (-11.7% / €106). In London the hotel rates increased both from the previous quarter and compared to last year (+7.3% increase). Manchester has, however, seen a decrease in rates from last year (-1.7%) but a big increase from the first quarter (€112 in Q1 compared to €118 in Q2).
Europe
Looking at the whole of Europe, Lisbon is at the forefront of significant price fluctuations. The Portuguese capital was priced at an average overnight rate of €113, which puts it in the lower half of the table, but with the biggest increase of +18.9% compared to 2016. Just last quarter rates were at €88.
Lisbon was followed closely by Madrid with +17% (€117 per night) and Prague with +15% (€92 per night). The most expensive city in Europe was Oslo with an average rate of €217, although one night in the Norwegian city this year has decreased by 2.3% compared to the previous quarter. Dublin and London were ranked second and third, with €213 and €190 respectively. Keith Watson added: “Lisbon has recently grown in popularity, from Dublin it is just a 2h 50m flight, no time difference, and benefits from year-round warmer climates, making it a great destination for business and leisure. Spain has seen a growth in business due to terrorist attacks in North Africa and Turkey. In Turkey, Istanbul remained as the lowest on the table as room prices fell by -9% to an average of €71 in 2017, which is probably due to the political developments and the resulting downturn in guest numbers.”
World
Toronto and Seoul saw the biggest rate developments on the opposite end of the scales, with two US cities leading the way: New York is a the top with €274 (+13.7%), followed by Washington €253 (+6.8%) and Sydney with €206 (+26.4%). The cheapest overnight rate of all top destinations was in Kuala Lumpur at €52 per night, meaning travellers could book five nights in Malaysia’s capital compared with just one night’s stay in New York.
Keith Watson said: “Two striking developments became apparent in this analysis: Toronto hit +40% on the average overnight rate. We will continue to check on this trend as Q1 also showed a large development of 29.1%. Comparatively in Seoul, the rates went down by a whopping -51.7%, showing extreme fluctuations from just last year where we saw a 32.5% rise in rates from 2015. The recent diplomatic row between China and South Korea could have an impact on the country’s number of international visitors.”
