Phnom Penh a bargain

 Phnom Penh has the cheapest hotels rooms, while worldwide hotel prices have risen by an average of 3% according to findings released in the latest Hotel Price Index by Hotels.com.

The report was presented at ITB Berlin, last week by Hotels.com marketing director, Florian Russ.

Hotel.com claims to be the world’s most-visited hotel booking portal, having been in business for 21 years.

The latest release of this six-monthly Hotel Price Index (HPI) is a de facto review of 2012.

Costing an average of 252 euros, the world’s most expensive hotel rooms were in the Omani capital Mascat. Second-placed was the town of Capri, situated on the eponymous island. A hotel room there cost 241 euros. Rio de Janeiro (213 euros) came in third, ahead of New York (189 euros) and Monte Carlo (185 euros). Costing an average of 43 euros, Phnom Penh in Cambodia was the cheapest city in the world.

The survey reported a 4% increase in hotel prices in Indonesia, the partner country of this year’s ITB Berlin. This marginal increase was due to the substantial investment currently being undertaken in Indonesia. In 2012 the average price per night for a double room in Indonesia was 98 euros. In 2011 it was 94 euros.

Hotels.com has been conducting its hotel price analysis since 2004. Since 2006 the results have been published in a 72-page booklet that also contains information and stories about the individual destinations. The Hotel Price Index is available in 32 national editions and 17 different languages.

According to Hotels.com PR manager, Yvonne Bonanati, the Hotel Price Index has one advantage over other surveys: “We look at the prices that were actually paid.” The results of the latest HPI are based on data taken from 155,000 bookings. (ITB news service).

Sourced: ttrweekly