February hotel prices plummet, London continues to buck the trend

Compared to February 2011, Newcastle (down 17 per cent to £73) has reported the greatest decrease in average rates, while Blackpool (£55) and Liverpool (£77) are down 13 and 10 per cent respectively.

These are the findings of the trivago Hotel Price Index, (tHPI), prepared each month by the hotel price comparison website trivago.co.uk.

Edinburgh (£89, down 9 percent), Birmingham (£70, down 5 percent), Sheffield (£64, down 4 percent) and Glasgow (£70, down 4 percent) also reported price drops this month, while the Irish capital of Dublin (£79, down 7 percent) and the Welsh capital of Cardiff (£71, down 12 percent) followed suit.

Hotels in London continue to buck the trend – they are up five per cent to £144. Paris, Geneva, Barcelona, Venice, Prague and Istanbul are the other cities in Europe that have seen an increase.

Cold snap​

Europe’s cold climate this month could be the possible cause of dropping hotel rates. As snow and severe weather warnings sweep through the continent, Eastern European cities such as Prague (£61, down 26 percent), Istanbul (£75, down 5 percent), and Budapest (£49, down 6 percent) have all experienced decreases in prices compared with January.

At the end of 2011, Trivago’s Hotel Price Index discovered that hotels across the UK ramped up their tariffs over the New Year’s weekend, with some city hotels charging almost three times more for a one-night’s stay. ​

The tHPI shows the average overnight accommodation prices for the most popular European cities on trivago. Prices for a standard double room are calculated on the basis of one million daily price inquiries for overnight hotel stays generated through the trivago hotel price comparison service.