-
HI
Has anyone noticed the massive increase in hotel prices since the pandemic I understand they have to make money however some of the prices are staggering eg some rooms previously would have been £400/£500 per night are at least are 3 some cases 4 times as much !!
Just wanted to see if other had thoughts .
Rant over.
It’s down to supply and demand
In many cities some hotels have simply closed. Hotels are often taken over by Governments to house refugees – it’s not just in the UK where that happens.
Both of those reduces supply but does not reduce demand so prices increase.
And depending on the destination all it takes for a big event to take place and that also increases prices hugely.
Do you have any specific examples?
One really needs to look at today’s hotel prices vs pre-pandemic, not the huge increases we have seen since the pandemic reduced prices. In the UK the equivalent of £100 is now £121.94 according to the Bank of England inflation calculator and hotels have suffered very much higher cost rises than general inflation – energy and staff costs in particular. There’s big pressure on owners to recover covid losses while they can and many are suffering from rate rises. On top of that, demand across hotel categories remains strong – Europe is still cheap for Americans.
On top of it, elite privileges are heavily downgraded.
Just recently I stayed at a Hilton, paid much more and got much less, compared to mid-pandemic rates and services at the very hotel. Diamond turned into a simple discount card for spa and pool etc.But as @JDB mentioned, it’s not a fair comparison between now and the pandemic. Yet, the rate increase and service decrease is well beyond what BoE inflation rates and Ukrainian war dictate, IMHO.
@can2, I’m now only making points bookings at any Hilton property which has a resort fee! We stayed one night at the Hampton on our arrival in GCM last week, it’s low season but flexible cash price would still have been just over $400 plus $45 resort fee when we were only staying long enough to sleep, eat breakfast and check out! It was 70k points but I’m sitting on a big pile of those so it caused me no pain.
So just after the pandemic we were getting some ridiculous rates in London – £93 a night for Doubletree Hilton Kensington King Exec split level for example. My own thought is that rates have gone up hugely in some major cities (especially London and Paris, I don’t travel to the States or Asia so can’t comment on pre-pandemic rates). But outside seem reasonable, and that’s even the case in some large cities (although it’s gone up now, could have picked up the Waldorf Astoria Berlin for less than £150 a night this August for example).
Frustratingly I didn’t jump on the Waldorf Berlin when it was sub-£200 and 3 for 2 on Impresario.
I agree there is value there if you can hold out. The cost of Chicago hotels this month means I’ve flipped all through the chains from points only to mixing points and cash to now thinking I’ll switch to just cash when the points saving is down to £20 or so.
The craziest price hikes I have seen is in Manhattan District, NY. I have always stayed in Times Square on my previous trips, but this time around I struggled to pay cash. Even the award nights were insanely expensive for September. As a result, I am staying outside Manhattan District, albeit not too far in Long Island.
Several hotels in Manhattan have closed completely, more have been taken over to house asylum seekers and that’s on top of the ones being used to house the homeless so capacity has reduced significantly resulting in higher prices.
I now stay (and have for many years even pre pandemic) in the financial district where it is cheaper and the rooms are often larger than uptown. Subway links are still good to the attractions in midtown and further north.
Several hotels in Manhattan have closed completely, more have been taken over to house asylum seekers and that’s on top of the ones being used to house the homeless so capacity has reduced significantly resulting in higher prices.
I now stay (and have for many years even pre pandemic) in the financial district where it is cheaper and the rooms are often larger than uptown. Subway links are still good to the attractions in midtown and further north.
I mulled doing this as it saves on cab fares to my friend living at WTC. But I’ve been shocked by the Subway ‘characters’ the last 2 trips I’ve made. They’ve always been there but they certainly seem to make up more of the overall ridership nowadays. Instead I decided I’d rather stay Midtown and suck up cab ride costs for any trips to WTC beyond 5pm.
How about we actually look at some data? I track all my holidays in a spreadsheet. I have data going back to the early 2000s when I first started trying to squeeze more value out of going away.
Bearing in mind inflation takes its toll as @JDB says with +25% since 2018. Also consider this is me comparing dates in a very quick sample of months with the very best rates I found at the time which would have involved lots of rebooking to find the right booking windows.
Comparing an August 2018 trip:
Sofitel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal: was £152, now £185
Hotel Corona d’Oro, Bologna: was £75 (wow!), now £250
Stadt Hotel Città, Bolzano: was £134, now £178
Su Gologone: was £309, now £285Comparing to April 2018 (forex will play a big part versus INR):
Taj Exotica, Goa: was £220, now £268
Ramada Plaza JHV, Varanasi: was £70, now £80
Radisson Lucknow City Center: was £141, now £40 (crikey!)Small selection of others:
Petite Anse Hotel, Grenada 2017: was £180, now £123
Mount Cinnamon, Grenada 2017: was £300, now £323 (didn’t check rooms compared)
Crowne Plaza Beijing Sun Palace Feb 2017: was £100, now £127
InterContinental Tokyo Bay Apr 2016: was £142, now £290Aside from the Bologna hotel where I must have robbed them somehow, it looks mostly inflationary to me. There are also a couple of examples where I think I was robbed.
Several hotels in Manhattan have closed completely, more have been taken over to house asylum seekers and that’s on top of the ones being used to house the homeless so capacity has reduced significantly resulting in higher prices.
I now stay (and have for many years even pre pandemic) in the financial district where it is cheaper and the rooms are often larger than uptown. Subway links are still good to the attractions in midtown and further north.
I mulled doing this as it saves on cab fares to my friend living at WTC. But I’ve been shocked by the Subway ‘characters’ the last 2 trips I’ve made. They’ve always been there but they certainly seem to make up more of the overall ridership nowadays. Instead I decided I’d rather stay Midtown and suck up cab ride costs for any trips to WTC beyond 5pm.
Subway “characters” ara a real danger if you have kids.
Last time I was there, a bible guy had a knife, nypd stopped the whole train for 30min to catch him. Kid was vulnerable in the push chair and we thought he was just a crazy guy.
Next time wife and kid were there, it was the subway attack killing some people…We never take the subway there anymore.
@masaccio thank you for adding some figures to confirm what is really happening rather than the click bait type headlines. Of course in some cities and certain hotels in some over popular destinations we have seen huge rises but otherwise we are reverting to pre-pandemic prices plus inflation with the same anomalies that we saw pre-2020.
It’s the same when people keep talking about Avios devaluations – if I look back at redemptions (including the cash element) from 10+ years ago many today are still the same or lower since the introduction of peak/off peak pricing.
I think the pricing depends on a number of factors, including where you’re going, when you’ve booked, demand, etc.
We predominantly like to travel to Asia and we got amazing deals on hotel rooms in KL, Bali, and Singapore last summer and then again in Japan last month that I would rate as better than pre-pandemic prices.
It was just the open-jaw airfare out to KL and back from Singapore that was a bit more than we’ve been accustomed, but not crazily so. We used an Amex 241 for Japan this year.
Starkest increase I’ve noticed is Fiji. Demand from AU/NZ & US/CA is crazy high now that the restrictions have been removed (no CFC requirement or on site testing), and as a result hotel prices are insane. They were never cheap (not for the chains/resorts anyway), but $500 for a Novotel near the airport (FJ$, so $333 AUD) is mad, for a hotel which sold for $100 only a year ago.
There’s still decent-ish deals to be had with points, and certainly on a cents per point value you’re doing well anyway, but it’s blown my mind pricing stays there this year.
I think the pricing depends on a number of factors, including where you’re going, when you’ve booked, demand, etc.
We predominantly like to travel to Asia and we got amazing deals on hotel rooms in KL, Bali, and Singapore last summer and then again in Japan last month that I would rate as better than pre-pandemic prices.
It was just the open-jaw airfare out to KL and back from Singapore that was a bit more than we’ve been accustomed, but not crazily so. We used an Amex 241 for Japan this year.
Last year I would agree that Asia Pacific was still reasonable, North America and Europe were very high though. This year is a different story in parts of Asia, notably Singapore and Hong Kong (the latter remained stubbornly high even during the protests pre-COVID). Malaysia has remained reasonable, in my opinion, for now.
Continuing with the Asia Pacific theme, five star hotels in China are a fair bit cheaper today vs. 2019, particularly in Beijing (that has always been cheap) but also in Nanjing and Shanghai. The oddity of big chain higher brands (Waldorf/RC/St Regis) often being more expensive than Mandarin/Peninsula/Kempinski etc. remains.
In Australia earlier this year, top hotel prices were flat vs 2019 but good restaurants a fair bit more expensive.
In Mexico and Argentina, US$ headline/rack rate prices are relatively flat except for a few exploitative pricers, but discounting has reduced somewhat. Argentina remains very cheap owing to the quirks of the currency system that still benefit tourists staying in US$ priced hotels.
These days it might be cheaper to stay over with a lady of the night, elite members might even get extra perks.
These days it might be cheaper to stay over with a lady of the night, elite members might even get extra perks.
Interesting. If as a welcome gift you get say a branded plastic drinks bottle, would that in effect constitute tit for tat?
That made me laugh out loud from my sun lounger! One would hope they accept Amex 😂
That made me laugh out loud from my sun lounger! One would hope they accept Amex 😂
I had a feeling you might share my immature humour.
And to clarify, American Express will do nicely thank you. (RIP Tina)
Last year I would agree that Asia Pacific was still reasonable, North America and Europe were very high though. This year is a different story in parts of Asia, notably Singapore and Hong Kong (the latter remained stubbornly high even during the protests pre-COVID). Malaysia has remained reasonable, in my opinion, for now.
That’s easy to explain. China outbound was closed last year. In Europe, it was more domestic demand with first year of no restrictions since covid. Europe next summer will struggle if China outbound doesn’t get back to pre covid levels
These days it might be cheaper to stay over with a lady of the night, elite members might even get extra perks.
Interesting. If as a welcome gift you get say a branded plastic drinks bottle, would that in effect constitute tit for tat?
Brilliant @BWS ! Also wondering what criteria would cause one’s member to be rated ‘elite’? Asking for a friend…
The oddity of big chain higher brands (Waldorf/RC/St Regis) often being more expensive than Mandarin/Peninsula/Kempinski etc. remains.
Is that because travellers are more brand conscious? Easier to boast about American brands than others? Or just hotel status benefits pushing customers to bigger chains?
Always thought these brands could do much better with a bigger chain like Hyatt.Just compared three trips from 2018/19 that I could easily find and tried dummy bookings for similar dates this year or next. The results:
– Tenerife boutique hotel San Roque, mid-tier room: 15% increase
– Hazlitt’s boutique hotel in Soho, London; suite: 152% increase
– Fairmont Chateau, Whistler, Canada; basic room: an off-the-scale, extraordinary 267% increaseSo the results are patchy, but the view that chain hotels are most affected is supported by my tiny sample.
My perception is that prices seem to be rising most rapidly in places where visitors from the USA are economically important. I’ve seen a similar pattern in Greece, where American visitors have driven up prices in some islands much more rapidly than others.
That also explains the chain hotel phenomenon. Chain hotels dominate the North American market where every small town has some kind of Marriott, Best Western, Hilton, etc, and the alternatives are often miserable affairs. Americans mistakenly think that the rest of the world is the same, even though Europe, in particular, has a long and proud tradition of family-owned hotels that offer superior quality and personal service at all price points.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
