HotelChatter

Hotel Trends / Hotel News / Ed Perkins / → All Tags

2007 Hotel Forecast Does Not Bode Well For You

London is a notoriously expensive city and one travel analyst is expecting the city across the pond to get even more expensive and essentially, unaffordable. But the sad thing is, it may not just be London.

Ed Perkins of Smarter Travel dished out his thoughts for the new year as far as the travel industry is concerned and this is what he had to say about hotels:

I see no relief from increasing hotel prices this year, especially in the big cities where rates have already soared. London is becoming simply unaffordable to American visitors, and New York isn't far behind. And in either city, even going down- market doesn't get you much of a deal -- or a decent room. Fortunately, most of Europe isn't as bad as London, and most of the United States hasn't hit New York highs yet.

More than ever, your best defense against outrageous hotel rates is to buy through an opaque site, such as Hotwire.com or Priceline.com, where prices can be much lower than on even self-styled "discount" sites. Of course, you don't know the name of the hotel you're buying until you actually commit yourself to the purchase, and it's totally nonrefundable. However, when you can live with those two limitations, prices can be pretty good.

Wow this speaks volumes about the state of the hotel industry today. We have to be at peace with buying a non-refundable stay at an unknown hotel in order to go on vacation without breaking the bank. And that's not all, Perkins expects hotels (among other travel services) to jack up your bill with hidden fees. Kind of depressing, no?

Send us your thoughts on what kind of year hotels will have in 2007.

[Photo: Litigationwhore]

Related Stories:
· Expect higher hotel rates and hidden fees [SF Chronicle]