KYIV, Ukraine, January 10, 2011 -- Ukraine's capital Kyiv topped the rating of the world cities which have experienced the steepest fall in the hotel room rates in January this year, the Australian HotelsCombined.com web-site reports. According to the web-site, the average room rate in Kyiv hotels has dropped by 23 percent from 124.7 to 96 USD per night.

Kyiv surpassed Moscow and New York, where the room rates have dropped by 19.8 and 17.9 per cent respectively, placing them 4th and 5th in HotelsCombined's rating. The average room rates are 121.51 USD in Moscow and 179.2 USD in New York.

Nowadays, Kyiv is putting a lot of effort into developing its hotel infrastructure. Five years ago, there was only one 5-star hotel in the 3-million-inhabitant capital of the country with a population of 46 million. Today Kyiv's five-star hotels include Premier Palace, Intercontinental, Hayatt and Opera.

According to the Director of the "Institute of the General Plan," a public institution responsible for the city's strategic planning and development, Serhiy Bronevytsky, there will be 20 new hotels opened before EURO-2012. As reported earlier, Kyiv will host the championship's final game.

To stimulate the construction of new hotels, last year the Ukrainian Parliament introduced the exemption of all 3-, 4-, and 5-star hotels built up until 1 September 2012, from the corporate income tax for 10 years.