Hotels.com has released its Hotel Price Index, which shows that global hotel rates rose 2 percent in 2010. The report also indicates higher occupancy levels for major cities like London, Paris, Las Vegas, Singapore, and New York due to the return of business travel.
Other findings include:
- Las Vegas still holds the crown as Americans’ favorite domestic city to visit in 2010, followed by New York, Orlando, Chicago, and San Francisco. Furthermore, the city of Pittsburgh is slowly moving up to be one of the top 50 cities Americans love to visit.
- Americans continue to flock to London, Paris, and Rome but Asian cities including Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, and Manila became new favorites in 2010.
- Overseas travelers are still enchanted with New York, Las Vegas, and Orlando making them the top three most-visited cities. Meanwhile, Honolulu moves up to become the 7th most-visited city in 2010-three spots up from 2009.
- Americans did not skimp on accommodations when visiting overseas but were a bit more frugal when finding rooms close to home. The average price paid per room overseas was $160, $46 more than what they would have paid for a hotel in the U.S.
- The top U.S. cities that saw significant year-over-year increases at 5-Star properties in 2010 were: Boston (21 percent), Chicago (20 percent), Miami (10 percent), San Francisco (22 percent), and Washington (16 percent).
- New Orleans has been recovering steadily since Hurricane Katrina. Rooms were up 12 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, indicating a healthy comeback for the hotel industry there.
- Bora Bora in French Polynesia averaged at $605 room rates, the most expensive in 2010, while Primm, Nevada, offers the cheapest rooms at $34 a night.
