Bargain hotel nights as prices tumble

GETAWAY DEALS:WITH TOURISM earnings in Britain predicted to fall by as much as £4 billion (€4.5 billion) over the course of the current recession, it is hardly surprising that hotel bargains are to be found in London.

According to the travel site Expedia.com, the average daily rate of a three-star hotel room in London in December fell about 30 per cent, to €70, compared with the same month in 2007, a figure that is largely attributable to the fall in the value of sterling.

Earlier this week, three-star hotels in the city centre were available on a number of websites with prices starting as low as €57. Four-star hotels cost as little as €79, with many hotels discounting prices by a further 20 per cent to drum up business.

Good hotel rooms in Manhattan don’t often come cheap, but all through January hotels are falling over themselves to offer sizeable discounts. NYC Company, New York’s marketing, tourism and partnership organisation, has convinced 10 luxury hotels to give visitors a complimentary third night after booking and paying for two consecutive nights. The deal lasts until the end of next month.

Outside of that, hotel rooms in the heart of the city’s theatre district are available with 40 per cent discounts via Expedia.ie. Three-star rooms are being offered for as little as little as €70; more upmarket options, such as the Radisson Lexington, have rooms for just over €100 per night.

Barcelona has one of the highest year-round hotel-occupancy rates in Europe, so bargains are hard to find even in the midst of a downturn. Nonetheless, four-star hotels along the Ramblas are being discounted by 15 per cent, to about €95 per night, on www.hotels.com for the end of this month; rooms in similar hotels in the suburbs of the city are on offer for less than €60.