Want A Hotel Room? You'll Spend The Most In Moscow

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Aug 7th 2010 at 8:01AM

Once again Moscow is the city with the most expensive average hotel room rate in the world. Bloomberg reports that a survey by business travel agency Hogg Robinson Group Plc showed that the average rate in the city in the first half was 256.83 pounds ($407). The rest of the top five were Geneva at 199.11 pounds, Hong Kong at 197.61 pounds, Paris at 197.13 pounds and New York City at 194.13 pounds. Rates were up in Stockholm, Zurich and Geneva.

The survey found that rates in the US were mostly flat or marginally back compared to 2009 figures, with the exception of San Francisco where average rates dropped by 11 percent. Although Moscow was still at the top its average rate declined by 12 percent. Room rates in Abu Dhabi were down 25 percent. Rome, Copenhagen and Dubai also showed reductions of 7 percent, 10 percent and 12 percent respectively.

Douglas McWilliams, Chief Executive of cebr (Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd.), a leading economic think tank which analyzed the HRG survey said that the global economic recovery is still fragile and that the "latest HRG Hotel Survey illustrates the effects of a multi-speed economic recovery in the hotel market." The report indicates that it may take until 2012 for some hotels to see a return to pre-recession rates.

Tags: hotel room rates, moscow