Its bargain Britain as UK hotel prices fall

Hotel prices in the UK continue to fall as hoteliers across the country drop rates to fill rooms, according to the latest Hotels.com Hotel Price Index. UK hotel prices were down by 12% to just £93 per room on average in the last three months of last year, making it a great time to holiday at home.

However, the weakness of the Pound meant that average prices paid by European and US travellers were down by as much as 25%, making the UK an even more attractive destination for foreign travellers.

The Hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI) tracks the real prices paid per hotel room rather than advertised rates for 68,000 hotels across 12,500 locations around the world

The latest HPI looks at prices from October to December 2008, compared to the same period the year before.

Hotel prices around the UK

UK hotel prices were down by an average of 12% at the end of 2008, with hotels in the North West seeing some of the biggest price drops. Prices in Blackpool fell by 22% to £79 per room per night, and in Manchester by 19% to £73 (see Appendix 1).

Similarly, London was a hot spot for bargains, with prices down 12% year-on-year in Q4 2008, to £111 per night on average.

On the other hand, Bath was the only city at the top of the price league in which the prices paid for hotel rooms actually rose – by 3% in Q4 2008 to £119. It remained the most expensive city in the UK.

The Hotels.com Hotel Price Index also showed that:

• Aberdeen led the price falls in Scotland, where prices dropped 13% to average £104 during the final three months of the year, making it the most expensive of the Scottish cities.
• Birmingham, Brighton and Belfast also experienced major price falls, with prices falling by 17% in all three cities, to £64, £79 and £83 respectively.
• Aside from Bath, Cardiff was the only city in the UK to actually experience a hotel price rise in Q4 2008, with a 7% increase, to £93 per night.

The prices paid for UK hotels by overseas travellers

Whilst UK travellers benefitted from significant price falls last year, visitors from Europe and the US enjoyed even bigger savings as the fall in hotel prices was compounded by weak Sterling.

Hotels.com found that, on average, travellers from the Eurozone to the UK paid 24% less for UK rooms in Q4 2008 than they did one year before.

Cities leading the price falls were London (down 24%), Manchester (down 24%) and Glasgow (down 23%). US travellers paid a similar proportion less for UK hotel rooms in Q4 2008 – average prices paid by travellers from the States to the UK fell by 25% between Q4 2007 and Q4 2008.

Boost for British tourism

Falling prices made Britain an even more attractive destination for domestic and foreign visitors alike. Hotels.com saw a 49% increase in the number of searches by Eurozone travellers for hotels in London in December 2008 compared to a year earlier, as travellers sought to take advantage of the weak pound.

David Roche, President, Hotels.com Worldwide, says: “This is the first time in the four years we have published the HPI that we have seen such marked price falls.

“British travellers can enjoy some great savings at home and the UK has never looked so attractive for foreign visitors.

”The silver lining for hoteliers is that the low prices are proving a boost to British tourism.”

Patricia Yates, Director, Strategy and Insights at Visit Britain said: “This report underlines that Britain is a great place to holiday right now, whether you’re from overseas or from the UK itself. There are some fantastic deals to be had and you can enjoy all this country has to offer for less than you’ve ever paid before.”