News for the Hospitality Executive |
September
12, 2012 – It was a sizzling summer season for
the American hotel industry, with hotel rates heating up across the
country
according to HotelsCombined’s year-over-year price index.
Based on average hotel prices throughout June, July and August, the majority of major U.S. destinations saw healthy rate increases in summer 2012 compared to summer 2011, with an average upturn of 17%. Anaheim snagged the highest price increase, with a 43% rise in the average nightly hotel rate of $109 in 2011 to $155.25 in 2012. The second-highest upsurge came from North Myrtle Beach, with a 36% rise in the average hotel rate of $143.01 in 2011 to $194.86 in 2012. But it wasn’t good news for all of America’s hotels – Savannah, Toledo and Indianapolis were the only major U.S. destinations to experience a summer rate decline. In Savannah, the cost of an average summer hotel stay dropped 4% from $116.10 in 2011 to $111.53 in 2012 while Toledo and Indianapolis’ rates both dipped by 3%. “Overall, the upturn data coming out of the U.S. was quite impressive,” says HotelsCombined VP of Business Development Yury Glikin. “It’s evident that the tourism sector there is experiencing significant growth and development compared to other international destinations.” Total list of hotel rate increases/decreases in major U.S. destinations:
In neighbouring Mexico, hotel rates similarly continued to climb last summer despite concerns over growing drug cartel violence. Cozumel posted the highest hotel rate increase for summer 2012, rising 23% from a 2011 average of $139.14 to $171.63. Cancun followed closely behind with a 22% increase. Other major Mexican destination rate spikes included Isla Mujeres (+18%), Los Cabos (+10%), Acapulco (+7%), Puerto Vallarta (+4%), Mexico City (+4%) and Playa del Carmen (+3%). Some interesting trends emerged internationally as well. Lahore, Pakistan saw the greatest jump in the 2012 summer, with a whopping 169% increase in average hotel rates over 2011. The Middle East also continued to prove its worth as a booming tourism hub - all major destinations spiked in price from summer 2011 to summer 2012 with the exception of Jerusalem and Doha, Qatar. Namely, Dubai hotel rates rose an impressive 56%, followed by Islamic pilgrimage hot spot Medina by 44%. Kiev was similarly a success story, with summer 2012 hotel rates having risen 56%. In Yekaterinburg, Russia, the hotel industry wasn’t quite so lucrative, experiencing the largest hotel rate decline in the world as their summer season prices fell 59% from 2011 to 2012. Other destinations experiencing significant declines in summer hotel rates this past season include Italy and Greece, likely as a result of the current European financial crisis. Athens hotel rates went down 27% while every major Italian destination besides Florence experienced a hotel rate decrease. About HotelsCombined HotelsCombined is the world’s leading hotel price comparison site. Created in 2005 as a solution to the problems facing the online accommodation market – namely, that consumers had to visit several websites to compare prices before making a reservation – the free online service searches and compares more than 2 million hotel deals in over 120,000 destinations worldwide, aggregating prices from 100s of online travel agents and hotel chains including Hotels.com, Booking.com, Travelocity, Expedia, Hotels.com, and InterContinental. HotelsCombined is currently visited by more than 100 million users every year and is available in over 220 countries. About the HotelsCombined Price Index The HotelsCombined Price Index is a survey of hotel prices in 1,000 major city destinations across the world. The international scale of the sites makes the HotelsCombined Price Index the most comprehensive benchmark available, incorporating hotel price data direct from hotels and online travel agent websites. |
Contact:
Kristen
McKenzie Head of Community and Public Relations www.hotelscombined.com |
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