British holidaymakers outspent by European neighbours

Cash-conscious Brits are keeping a tight grip on their purse-strings when holidaying abroad, in comparison with many of our European neighbours, leading accommodation website Hotels.com* has found.

Looking at travellers across Europe, Hotels.com found that whilst thrifty Brits spend an average of just £97 a night on a hotel room when going abroad, the Irish are Europe’s most lavish spenders, splashing out £112 per night on average, which adds up to an extra £105 on a week-long holiday.

In fact, British holidaymakers are out-spent by almost all of our closest European neighbours – with the Italians and Spanish spending a huge £110 per night, and the French forking out £103 when travelling overseas. Only the Germans and the Scandinavians are more frugal, spending just £95 a night on average.

However, when holidaying at home, it is our European neighbours who are benefitting from the bargains. Whilst the British spend an average of £97 for a hotel room at home - the same as when we travel abroad - many of our European neighbours tend to make significant savings when holidaying in their own countries, the Irish spending just £85 per room per night, the Germans £76 and the French just £68.

Alison Couper, Director of Communications for Hotels.com comments, “We have found that despite the weakness of the pound, travelling abroad doesn’t have to have a high price tag. In fact, Brits are managing to find better deals when travelling abroad than many other Europeans. There are currently savings on our site of up to 40% on hotels in Europe and further afield, for those who want to make their holiday money go even further.”

For more information, visit hotels.co.uk.

* 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 was based on real prices paid by travellers during the period October-December 2008.