Hotel Prices Decrease In Cape Town

So, who's missing the boat on Cape Town hotel prices? Cape Town Tourism, CTRU?  This blog has been following stats supplied by Statistics South Africa for the last 6 months and we are told that tourist figures are increasing monthly. Yet when you speak to accommodation establishments and read the local rags, all you hear is the doom and gloom about our hotels and guesthouses overcharging. Is it all a case of smoke and mirrors? Someone is seriously confused, so read on...

The quarterly Hotel Price Radar by HRS, the hotel portal, has identified a levelling of global hotel prices. Whilst most rates increased in Q1 2011, Q2 has seen many prices decrease, especially in Cape Town which has seen a dramatic decrease of 28% compared to the same time last year when it hosted the World Cup.

HRS compared hotel room prices in a total of 50 cities across the world to reveal that guests in Zurich and Sydney found the biggest rise in prices over the same quarter last year. Average prices for hotel rooms in both these cities rose by more than 20% - to more than 160 euros in Zurich and just below 143 euros in Sydney.

In most European cities room prices rose in Q2 2011 compared to the same quarter last year. For Istanbul, Warsaw and Zurich this was a double-digit rise. Zurich saw prices rise by 24.6% to more than 160 euros, knocking Moscow off the top spot. However, the Russian capital also reported higher prices - up by 5.63% to 148.44 euros. Other relatively expensive cities are Amsterdam, Oslo and Paris, with prices above 130 euros per room.

Outside Europe, prices varied widely. In 13 of the 20 cities reviewed prices have fallen, mostly by a few percentage points. Cape Town, Tokyo and Las Vegas have seen a stronger decline of more than 15%. In Cape Town room prices have fallen one year after the football World Cup by 28%, the most significant HRS found in this survey. The average price paid by guests to the South African city in Q2 2011 was 84.42 euros; in the same quarter last year it was still over 117 euros. The prices have fallen to 2009 levels, the year before the World Cup.

Maybe, just slash the price of crayfish and wine then stand back and watch as the tourists come marching in.