Hotel prices fall by 17% during fourth quarter

The average price of a hotel room in Ireland feel by 17 per cent in the final three months of 2008, according to a new study.

The latest Hotel Price Index from hotels.com reveals that the average cost of a hotel room declined from €108 to €89 during the fourth quarter.

Britain was the country in which prices fell furthest, and fastest of the major European destinations – down 24 per cent year-on-year to €116 while Norway recorded an 18 per cent decline in costs to €121. Ireland's 17 per cent fall places the country at third in the price-drop league table.

Limerick was the only Irish city to record a rise in the cost of a hotel room during the fourth quarter of 2008.

Galway boasts the most expensive hotels in the country at €129 per night on average, while in Cork; the average cost of a room was €100, a decline of 21 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2007.

Hotel prices in Dublin fell by 20 per cent to average €86 per night in the final three months of the year, according to the index.

In Limerick, hotel prices rose 2 per cent from €75 in the fourth quarter of 2007 to €76 by the end of 2008.

Hotel prices around the world fell by 12 per cent between October and December 2008. By the end of last year, prices had fallen to a level just 1 per cent above those recorded in 2004.

North American hotels experienced the steepest falls, down 12 per cent on the previous year, while hotels rooms in Europe declined 10 per cent.

The most expensive hotel prices are in Moscow where the average room price during the final quarter of 2008 was €231 per night, down 16 per cent from €274 for the same quarter a year earlier.

Prices paid by travellers to Abu Dhabi rose by a quarter to make it the world’s second most expensive city, where average prices paid averaged €224 in the final three months of the year.