Hotels.com reveals Europe's biggest holiday spenders

Hotels.com's latest Hotel Price Index (HPI) has revealed that Irish and Norwegian travellers are bearing the mantle of being Europe’s biggest spenders when travelling abroad, spending on average €122 per night on a hotel room.

Despite the economic climate, the Irish have retained the title for two years in a row as Europe’s biggest spenders when it comes to hotel rooms when they leave their own country, according to the figures for Q1 and Q2 2009 released in the new HPI report.

In terms of hotel room spend abroad, the Irish and Norwegians are closely followed by British and Swedish travellers who are willing to pay on average €120 and €119 each per night respectively.

The figure for Irish spending habits on hotels abroad has however dropped slightly to €122 from €134 on hotel rooms per night from the previous HPI report, released in March 2009, which recorded activity for the period October to December 2008 compared to the same period the year before.

The Germans and the Finns are at the other end of the scale, spending the least on hotel rooms when compared to their European counterparts, with the Germans spending on average €107 and the Finns just €104.

Alison Couper, Director of Communications at Hotels.com, commented:

"It is very interesting to see that the Irish have retained the title as the biggest spenders in Europe on hotel rooms when travelling outside their own country and is probably why they are welcome tourists throughout the world. The Irish have earned a reputation for being great spenders while on recreational breaks."

The Hotels.com HPI is a regular survey of hotel prices in major city destinations across the world. The HPI is based on bookings made on Hotels.com, and prices shown are those actually paid by customers (rather than advertised rates), in the first six months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008. The HPI tracks the real prices paid per room by Hotels.com customers around the world using a weighted average based on the number of rooms sold in each of the markets that Hotels.com operates in. Approximately 78,000 properties in more than 13,000 locations make up the sample set of hotels from which prices are taken.

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Notes to Editor
About Hotels.com
As part of the Expedia group which operates in all major markets, Hotels.com offers more than 100,000 quality hotels, B&Bs and serviced apartments worldwide including Edinburgh hotels, hotels in London, Rome hotels and cheap New York hotels.

If a customer can find the same deal for less on a prepaid hotel, Hotels.com will match it. Hotels.com benefits from one of the largest hotel contracting teams in the industry negotiating the best rates for its customers, plus there are 1.3m reviews from users who have actually stayed in the hotels to ensure customers make an informed choice when booking. Hotels.com won the Gold Award for best hotel booking site in Webuser magazine in February 2009.

For more information or to request interviews:
Cordy Griffiths
Hotels.com
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