Well, according to Bloomberg, that's because it is! What used to be a $600 room in the before times now goes for $1,000. And the occupancy rates for that level of room is growing, even if the hotels themselves aren't any nicer.
If a hotel had work done, they have no restrictions about raising rates. And then their neighbors join in. As Bloomberg put it, it's thanks to inflation and aspiration.
Greed isn’t new. Simply more prevalent in the travel industry.
Is that for one night or one week?
There was a lot of people who traveled last year. It’s been predicted a lot will be traveling this year……supply and demand. Just look at airline prices to Europe.
A $600 room is rarely, if ever, on my radar. So if it is now a $1000 it isn't going to make much difference in our travel plans.
Frank, I think the $600 price was just an example. Unfortunately, in many current articles there’s talk about how the price of rooms in general in Europe have gone up significantly.
How $1,000-a-Night Hotel Rooms Became the New Normal
”Thanks to inflation, competition and aspiration, luxury travel has reached a new standard. From 2019 to the end of 2022, luxury room rates rose 35% in Europe and 28% in North America.”
I’ve never been nor want to be reserving hotel rooms in that bracket, so I can’t speak to that level of travel. It’s hard to say travel hasn’t had an increase in price when pretty much everything including grocery prices at home have gone up.
On the other hand, I’m sitting in a beautiful hotel room on a gorgeous flowered plaza for $150/night in a smaller city in Spain - splurged on this style for one night, so prices aren’t crazy everywhere. Our Malaga hotel was $100/night, and it was a very nice place to stay, also.
On the whole, with most of the statistics in now, tourism in Europe was at about pre-COVID levels. Some surveys say as much as a 3% increase, some surveys say breakeven. Some destinations up a bit more than others and some still down. Nothing I read indicated any place up double digits vs pre-COVID. So that might be a tiny bit of the cost increase, but I doubt much except in certain markets where the increase was notable.
I would suspect that some number of rooms were lost to COVID bankruptcy. That will triger supply and demand cost increases.
I also suspect that the tightneing of restrictions on AirBnb rentals is shifting tourism weight to hotels. In some markets the AirBnb can be a third of the available rooms, like Vienna is doing, and supply and demand will increase the cost of hotels.
Inflation in Europe has been as high as it has been in the US, and in some places much higher, so I am sure that raised the prices.
But I havent seen anything indicating the cause is "Greed" more like survival and good business.
my limit is 100€ a night, in exceptional circumstances 150€. So I don't really care about $1,000 a night.
Well, Nigel, that was according to Bloomberg. And we know that Bloomberg servies the bourgeoisie and rulling classes and just isnt relative to the working proletariat.
But my limit is 68€ with maybe 74€ in cruntch.
well then Mr É, I must be soooo middle class!
I haven’t traveled since pre-pandemic but have a trip planned for this spring. From my limited viewpoint, it seems hotel rooms in smaller, less “must see” locations are still reasonable. However, prices in big cities and must see places have gone up a lot, and are also now utilizing dynamic pricing. This is our third attempt (3rd time is the charm, right ?) at planning this particular trip. A nice, well reviewed 3 star hotel in Rome near Campo de Fiori was charging slightly less than €200/night for a standard room in both 2020 and 2022. The same room was listed for €275/night, and much higher on weekends, when we booked in 08/23 for a stay 05/24. Three months later, when a friend decided to travel with us, the exact same room was listed for €325/night. (Did I mention this is a 3 star hotel?) In January our friend adjusted her travel plans to arrive a day later, and tried to change her room reservation accordingly; the system required her to cancel and rebook. When she tried to rebook, the room rate had gone up again (pretty steeply, although I can’t remember the specifics) and she ended up choosing to stay elsewhere in a smaller place a little further away. But it appears that as rooms fill up for specific dates, hotels are raising rates for rooms still available on those dates by quite a bit. I experienced something similar in Milan, with a room price making a big jump between when I first looked at it and when I was ready to book. Some of this is inflations (higher costs for heating and cooling make it more expensive to run a hotel, etc). But the dynamic nature of the pricing I’m seeing makes me think some of it is definitely driven by high demand and what the market will bear.
Greed isn’t new. Simply more prevalent in the travel industry.
I do not think it is all greed. hotels are a great example of supply and demand. If you have a 100 people wanting your 10 rooms, you are hardly going to offer discounts, and you certainly will price to improve your profit, you're running a business, not a charity.
The same really goes for museums, air tickets, train tickets, if you have more customers than you can handle, raise the price to control the crowds.
Basically $1000/night hotel rooms are not greed, it is what people are willing to pay. If no one stays there, then the $1000/Night issue will take care of itself. The problem is not hotels, it is us. (By that I mean a collective "us", all mankind, no one on here, of course, is part of the problem ;))
An addition: I have been looking at rooms for about 6 weeks in April and May, across two "trips" and 6 countries, and yes, I am seeing some increased cost, not terrible, but I target for 100 EUR/night average, this trip I will probably be closer to 110 EUR average, maybe a bit more. I also am seeing more demand pricing, steep increases for events, even for just busy times.
In my domestic travels, I've always clipped coupons from lime green coupon books in highway rest areas for budget hotel rooms. I'm not about to spend $1,000, $600 or even $300 per night for a room. I find even mid-line hotels to be more than I care to spend.
We've been traveling to large, high traffic cities in Europe the last couple of years showing our 12 year old granddaughter some famous travel sights. And we've spent a little more than we like to spend in places like Paris, London and Rome. I can easily see room rates post pandemic increasing fast.
But we're through traveling to most large cities in both the U.S. and Europe. There are still many places off the beaten path that are waiting for us--especially in less costly countries like Portugal, inland Spain, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia.
For us, big cities are just great places to fly through their airports. We've been to most all the big European cities 4-5 times anyway.
Nigel, just for you: https://youtu.be/ue7wM0QC5LE?feature=shared I think you will appreciate it as much as I do.
Paul, "Fair" is when YOU sell someting for what you are offered. "Greed" is when someone else is willing to pay more than you are for something you want.
Rising hotel prices are all the more reason that we’ve been mostly staying in Airbnb’s on trips. Short-term rentals like those on Airbnb, Vrbo, etc., are causing some problems for hotels, motels, B&B’s, etc., as well as for the availability of formerly long-term rental places in resort areas, but having a kitchen, and maybe a dishwasher and clothes washer (and dryer!) are really helpful amenities that can still be found without spending an arm and both legs.
Except for destinations that are recognized to be particularly expensive, like Scandinavia and London, Nigel’s €100/night target has still been pretty easy to hit. I’m done with hostels…are those getting sky-high, too?
Even AirBnbs are getting more expensive and cities that still allow them are not as many as they once were. One of the reasons hotels cost more.
My rooms for Paris booked last week or so at three different 2 star hotels in Gare du Nord for a total of 16 nights at the end of May and into June cost less or the same as they were last summer.
Most definitely, not more expensive. One of the three hotel offered 1,000 Euro for ten nights....I took it since I was there last summer....quite satisfactory.
We’re staying at the same hotel we stayed at seven years ago in Madrid, Spain. Amazing close view of the royal palace which is why I booked this one again. Also, it’s a very large room. The price per night is $250 which is probably close to what I paid in 2017 since I splurge on a couple of places each trip. ($250-300 is my definition of splurging.)
February/March 2022 trip to Edinburgh & London was an average of £122 a night. This was as travel was starting again there were deals to be had.
August 2022 was going to be mostly Great Malvern & Ironbridge and a few nights in London. I was actually booking accommodations in February while I was in the UK and there were even better deals then when I booked the February trip back in December 2021. Average was going to be £108 a night. This trip was canceled because of my accident.
October/November 2023 was Chichester & London with an average is £146 a night.
October 2024 is Ironbridge, Manchester & London reservations are made and the average is £138 a night.
My hotel chain of choice is Locke.
Global hotel prices have continued to accelerate this summer led by
higher rates in Europe, according to the latest data from hotel
analyst STR.Worldwide average daily rate (ADR) rose by 6.3 per cent in July
compared with the same month last year, with prices in Europe seeing
an even bigger year-on-year rise of 13.4 per cent during the month.Although this level of year-on-year increase in European hotel prices
was lower in percentage terms compared with 2022 and earlier in 2023
illustrating that rate rises may finally be stabilising. Travel
management company CWT is already predicting "more moderate" price
rises in 2024.
