Astronomical Hotel Prices

Time of year makes a difference. Hotel Ayer is $148 for 14 August, on 22 October it is $320, and 16 December $133. Then of course, if there are festivals, conferences, or conventions when you want to visit, then all bets are off.

A few years ago the price of a hotel I stayed at in Madrid tripled between the beginning and end of my trip thanks to a world medical conference being held there. In my 6 trips to Spain since 2011, other than what I just mentioned, I haven’t noticed a huge increase in hotel prices.

Prices are up (I haven’t see that large of jump, thankfully!), but time-of-year and specific events in a city affect the prices. When planning a trip, if there aren’t any festivals driving my schedule dates, I look up the prices of lodging I am wanting to pick for my itinerary and also my itinerary in reverse order. Also, a quick look of shifting the date of travel for both flights & lodging prices. Sometimes the difference in order or start date will yield savings to cover several meals, etc.

Sounds like what happens to so many of my favorite hotels over the years— the property gets sold to new owners who first renovate the building and then steeply raise the hotel’s rates.

And major cities in Spain (and across Western Europe) have started to, and others are planning to, remove up to a third of the tourist accommodations from their cities. Things may get much worse.

Has anyone tracked hotel prices in Vienna since they closed a bunch of their tourist accommodations at the start of the year?

Time to start looking seriously at the Albanian Rivera.

I think a number of cities are closing down AirBNB's and that may put inflationary pressure of scarcer lodgings in hotels. There seems to be huge anti-over-tourist sentiment growing in various places - e.g. Barcelona.

I disagree that good times are over for cheap travel. One can always travel cheaply, but it depends upon how willing you are to compromise comfort.
If you want a nice hotel with a private bathroom, you usually do have to pay a bit more everywhere.
There are always options like hostels, campsites (bring a tent and a sleeping bag!), etc. Some travelers even confess to sleeping in their rental cars in Iceland (?!). Hitch-hiking was the poor man's bus ticket.
Certainly increased popularity of a location, and traveling in high season will have an impact.

Sometimes just for a fun exercise I try to see how cheaply I can stay in a place, but I never travel that way anymore. Been there, done that.

I just returned from Madrid and Rome, and stayed in four star hotels for less than $200.00 per night each. I was provided with private bathrooms, minibars, bathrobes, slippers, breakfast, nightly candies, etc., etc. To me, those hotels were real bargains--NYC hotels have not been that low in decades. Could I have paid a lot less? OF COURSE! But I am also pickier now, and I will splurge for hotels with excellent reviews, safety, convenient location, and all amenities. My goal is not to travel at the cheapest rate, but to travel at the best rate I can while getting exactly want I want. Buena suerte!

RailRider, you are correct. It was the AirBnb I was refering to. In some cities its a third of the tourist accommodations. People are still going to come. They will just have to pay more until some more housing gets torn down to make way for hotels. And they will be in the city center as well.

This does do one thing for some travelers. It pushes them a little out of their comfort zone and they may begin trying new places. The ones that do I think will be pleasantly surprised. There is a whole lot of Europe that remains under-touristed and a lot of it is magnificient. But if you dreamed of the Eiffel Tower, then you owe it to yourself to go. Then maybe a side trip someplace more reasonable. Its exactly how I found the corner of Europe that I enjoy most. But i did all the mainstream things first and I think that is approprate for anyone fulfilling a dream holiday.

I did a solo 2 months in 2014 and paid an average of $50 a night, in subsequent trips, e.g 2019-2020, more like $80 average. In 2021, more like $125 average. And it continued to climb. Of course it depends on many things - location, date, the specific hotel, etc. But averages over a month or so give some indication.

I did hostels in England, Belgium, and Germany for a month. During that month, I almost never got a good nights sleep. There would always be someone arrived at 1 am, someone else at 3 am, then someone getting up at 6 am - each turning the light on. This was years ago, but I found I could stay in a cheap hotel in the smaller cities for not much more - private bathroom and no one messing with my sleep, and I immediately enjoyed my travel much more.

Somewhat of the same experience AirBnB. For example, going to an address in Paris and finding it was a high rise with a security guard, and no idea which unit - and waiting an hour before a random teen came through the exit, and I asked if they had any idea, and just by luck she lived in the one unit out of 50 where the AirBnb was. The photos showed a beautiful living room with a wood floor. But what they did was kick two kids out of their bedroom, and told them to get blankets and sleep in that living room, and they have us their room. We got a bunch of flea bites from their cats' flea. We never stepped foot into the living room because they were sleeping until 10 am and we headed out. And all that for same price as I could get a private room in Montmatre. This was in the 19t, and a tiny bit sleazy too. Then we had arrangements for Avignon at noon, and we told the day before that it would not be available until 8 pm at night - so we would have to hang around all day and evening with all our bags.

So I stick to hotels - and like 24 hour staff. I don't need fancy, but just clean and safe and not too horrible of a bed. A nice bonus is to have a good breakfast. I really enjoy that experience - not so much for the food - but you share the room with other tourists, and eat well to start off the day.

Going back to that hotel in Sevilla. Their lunch room was on the 2nd floor, with picture windows and a nice view of the street and station. And it was cool just to enjoy your breakfast and cappuccino and enjoy the ambience before heading out for the day. When I last stayed there in 2021, it was about 9 or 10 eu for breakfast which is nothing - especially considering you could walk up and tell them what you wanted in an omelet and they would cook it for you fresh on the spot, etc.

Use Kayak.com or Trivago.com for more affordable lodgings.

This is not a situation unique to Europe. Look at any major city in the United States that also serves as a cruise port. Seattle is my example. The hotel prices are absolutely ridiculous from May to September, then come down to only slightly ridiculous the rest of the year. It is the old supply/demand dynamic at work.

I have used hotels, bookings, trivago, and at times, Expedia, Trip, Etc. I often check for the hotel's own website. If the price is the same or less on those sites, I go with booking or hotel dot com. If hotels website is less, then I go that way. A few times I walked into a hotel and asked their price they told me X. I said I can order the same room online for X-20, can you lower your price? No? Ok, give me a second, let me book it on my phone then. I was in France one time, and a single older lady walked in, and asked the price and they told her Y, she said she can only afford 65% of Y, and surprisingly they said "ok sure".