New research by HRS, The Hotel Solutions Provider, has revealed that London is Europe’s most expensive capital to stay in, seeing an increase of more than 10 per cent compared to this time last year.
With average room rates in London reaching nearly £130, this places the UK’s capital ahead of Paris and Copenhagen which both have average room rates of £117 per room (€149).
Whilst London also remains the most expensive UK city for its average room rate per night, another capital city, Edinburgh, is the second most expensive in the UK (£97 seeing a significant increase of almost 13 per cent in average room rates against 2013. Interestingly, the Welsh capital also increased by over 13 per cent.
Overall, UK hotel rates increased in the past year, reflecting growth in the UK economy.
Jon West, Managing Director of HRS for the UK and Ireland, said: “Thanks to the economic recovery, tourism is picking up again and this is reflected in the price increase of hotel rooms in the capital.”
| Top Destinations (UK & Ireland) | Average room rate per night 1* – 5* per night Q2 2014 in £s | Rate development compared to Q2 2013 in % |
| Birmingham | £72.13 | 5.32% |
| Bristol | £86.26 | 8.02% |
| Cardiff | £79.12 | 14.89% |
| Dublin | £80.73 | 6.08% |
| Edinburgh | £97.40 | 12.75% |
| Glasgow | £72.62 | 2.58% |
| Leeds | £77.02 | 13.13% |
| Liverpool | £72.51 | -2.27% |
| London | £129.14 | 10.67% |
| Manchester | £83.72 | 10.81% |
London, Copenhagen and Paris are the most expensive destinations in Europe
With an increase of more than 10 per cent on last year, London has stolen the top spot from Copenhagen which now is on a par with Paris, both averaging €149 per room per night.
After London, the largest increase in room rates was seen in Lisbon (€96), Copenhagen (€149) and Amsterdam (€139), where the room rates increased by 17, 11 and five per cent respectively.
| Top Destinations (Europe) | Average room rate per night 1* – 5* per night Q2 2014 in £s | Rate development compared to Q2 2013 in % |
| Amsterdam | €139.54 | 5.65% |
| Barcelona | €111.35 | 0.79% |
| Berlin | €86.19 | -1.68% |
| Brussels | €119.91 | -0.57% |
| Budapest | €75.86 | -0.14% |
| Copenhagen | €149.59 | 11.10% |
| Helsinki | €118.14 | -8.06% |
| Istanbul | €90.92 | -11.09% |
| Lisbon | €96.26 | 17.46% |
| London | €163.58 | 10.67% |
| Madrid | €91.60 | 5.21% |
| Milan | €117.01 | 0.19% |
| Moscow | €133.50 | -9.74% |
| Oslo | €127.65 | -14.35% |
| Paris | €149.01 | 1.43% |
| Prague | €77.55 | 0.70% |
| Rome | €113.75 | 2.40% |
| Stockholm | €137.47 | -11.88% |
| Warsaw | €72.72 | -4.87% |
| Vienna | €93.83 | -1.29% |
| Zurich | €142.19 | -6.07% |
Table 2: Average room rate per night for hotel stays in European cities
HRS – The Hotel Solutions Provider
HRS is a global hotel solutions provider and offers its more than 40,000 corporate customers worldwide a variety of tools and services free of charge, which cover the whole valuechain – from hotel procurement, over booking transactions and innovative payment solutions to the transmission of relevant data for the analysis of the accommodation expenses. HRS individually looks after its customers and develops perfectly tailored solutions that facilitate travel management. Intelligent complete solutions for conference and group bookings complete the offered services.
With more than 250,000 hotels in 190 countries, HRS offers a big selection of hotels worldwide. These include, among hundreds of hotel chains, also roughly 150,000 privately held hotels. 300 Hotel Sales Managers contribute with their knowledge of the local market to a high availability of the hotels and an ideal customer service. Furthermore, corporate customers profit from HRS corporate discounts with saving up to 30 per cent on the up-to-the-minute daily rate.
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