Hotel rooms up 10% last year to €103 average, says survey

The cost of staying in an Irish hotel climbed by 10 per cent, or more than 10 times the rate of general inflation last year, according to a new survey.

The average price of a hotel room in 2014 was €103 in the hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI), with the most expensive rooms in Killarney. The greatest price increase was recorded in Dublin .

However, the steep increases reported were immediately rejected by the Irish Hotel Federation (IHF) which claimed the figures were based on a small market sample. It has put the increase last year at just over 5 per cent.

The hotel booking website stood over its figures and said they were based on bookings made on its site with the prices being those actually paid by customers rather than advertised rates.

It described the fourth consecutive year of hotel-price increases as "a positive sign for the Irish tourism industry" and said despite the increases "Ireland still remains a great-value destination for both domestic and international travellers".

Hotels. com said the cancellation of the five Garth Brooks concerts scheduled for Croke Park were a blow to the tourism industry, but that rates in Dublin still increased faster than elsewhere with rooms costing an average of €109 per night, up 13 per cent on 2013.

Large events such as the Web Summit (which saw about 22,000 people descend on the capital for the technology conference last November), the Giro D’Italia in May and All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final replay in September boosted room rates in the city.

After Dublin, the highest Irish increases were recorded in Belfast and Limerick, which both saw 12 per cent rises. Limerick remains the best value destination in Ireland as visitors paid an average of €76 per room per night in 2014. The average room rate in Belfast was €100.

Killarney held on to its dubious title as the place where visitors paid the most, with rooms costing an average of €111 a night, up 5 per cent year-on-year. It said the promotion of the Wild Atlantic Way both at home and abroad by Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland impacted hotel prices in the west with prices in Sligo, Cork and Galway posting increases of 3 per cent, 7 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

“Less than one out of every 10 room nights booked in Ireland is sold through this booking site,” said the president of the IHF Stephen McNally.

“The vast majority of hotel bed nights in Ireland are sold through other sources including directly with the hotel; over the phone or through the hotel’s website. Hotels.com does not typically capture other categories of booking such as the key tour, conference and event market segments,” he said.