If you’re sending your travellers to Moscow, Mumbai or Paris, there will be a big sting in the hotel bill. Rates of £299.86, £204.13 and £195.34, respectively, are what you can expect to pay, according to HRG’s annual hotel survey. The TMC books over three million room nights per year.
“Demand still outweighs supply in many global markets,” explains Margaret Bowler,
Global Hotel Relations Director at HRG.
Hong Kong, Bangalore and London’s have all fallen out of the Top Ten most expensive cities this year so there is some relief there. In London, rates are softening, particularly in the big bed factories of Earls Court as more supply opens up east of the city, in places such as Canary Wharf.
It’s a similar picture elsewhere around the UK. Soft rates can be found in Bristol, Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
Abu Dhabi has joined the Top Ten as rates here are almost on a par with Dubai and HRG warns that Johannesburg could soon be joining as rates have been doubling in the South African city.
The Top Ten highest hotel rate increases have been witnessed in Berlin (39% and the highest in Europe), Mumbai (37%), Geneva (31%) and Singapore (30%).
What’s a corporate to do in this situation? “If all their business is to Mumbai or Moscow, God help them! The best you can do is book and apartment or rent a house in those two cities,” says Bowler. But if corporates are serious about saving money the only way to go is to mandate policy,” advised Bowler. “These rates will also change where you book meetings and where you stage an incentive,” she says.
“Hotels can now out-cost air so this may change the focus and effort put in by travel managers. We’re already beginning to see this change and hotels are not the poor relation anymore.”
