Why are hotels suddenly so expensive?

[queenrollo]

I have an event in London in June and due to crappy rural trains I will have to stay over. The last time I did this I got a very basic room for £79. That same room is now £188! (it was a windowless box with just a bed, toilet and no tea making facilities)
I'm probably going to have to cancel the event, because I simply can't justify this.
Friends have suggested airbnb, but I have done this before and as a single female found getting myself around London after 11pm really stressful. Hotels tend not to be down residential streets so feel safer to get to.

I'm not even after anything flash, but i'm looking at Premier Inn, Travelodge, Point A type places and it's all £200 a night!

I'm just having a moan really, but just wondering if other people are finding this a problem either in London or elsewhere in the country?

Demand for hotel rooms from international travellers is extremely high at present as covid travel bans and testing are removed around the world. Hotels usually use dynamic pricing - so where demand is high then prices are higher. Foreign tourists on the trip of a lifetime are prepared to pay high rates.

Also add in the significant increased cost of utilities and food prices (there’s no energy cap for businesses), then this alone can account for a huge increase in rate.

Premier Inn, Travelodge etc are no longer a cheap option, sadly, unless they're either in the middle of nowhere or somewhere like Newcastle Quayside where you won't get a wink of sleep due to the incessant partying... great when you're 20 odd, not so much in your 40s. We really don't approve of Airbnb as we've seen what it does to so many residential areas so when we go away we spend a lot of time on Hotels.com, Bookings,com etc to see what b and bs are available or what last minute special offers we can find at hotels. This won't help you much at this point but we also try to book as far in advance as possible.

We've also sometimes booked in uni dorms out of term time and private rooms in youth hostels for decent ish prices though again you're taking pot luck with the noise.

But in answer to your question - yes , in line with everything else, hotel rooms are now mad. I earned less than half my current salary 20 years ago and yet I was able to go on short breaks and have other little luxuries far more often. It makes no sense.

I had to attend a conference a few weeks ago. Two nights in a Premier Inn was over £300! It wasn’t in London, about 45 minutes by train. I did get a ‘Premier Plus’ room but still….

Were going to Cardiff today, most hotels were booked up so we’re staying about 10 miles away. No idea why as there’s no big concerts or anything.

If you don’t mind sharing when and roughly where the event is maybe some Londoners could help with suggestions of areas that are well connected?

It could be that there’s a large event happening and everything gets booked up and more expensive?

I noticed this top. Tried to book a hotel which I need in a mo rh. Book the same hotel for the same weekend at the same time every year. Has always been between 50 and 60 a night. Nearly fell off my chair when I saw it had gone up to 128 per night. More than 100% increase. I imagine that people have probably been used to not being able to heat their homes so when in the hotel room take advantage of the fact that you can turn the heating on full blast. I dread to think what their gas/electric/food etc costs have risen to. Hopefully they have also increased staff wages.

*too
*month

Try Z hôtels. Things are generally more expensive- it can’t have escaped your notice - and I think in terms of supply/demand there’s a lot more people travelling now post pandemic.

When in June? Uni halls of residence (as a PP suggested) are available from the 25th

I regularly stay in an hotel in Devon (small, independent), I had a long chat with the owner, the price has had to go up by almost 80% for the following reasons :
Energy costs are running about 5x - and they can't just turn off the lights, although he's had many changed to be operated by motion sensors in public areas etc.
Food: costs of food as well as energy to cook = costs around 1.5 x pre pandemic No longer a buffet breakfast, it's all cooked to order now which takes more time, but you're encouraged to order breakfast the night before with an approx time, so they can stagger staff needed.
Laundry - their costs have gone up by 50% due to the fact that's a high energy process. They've reduced usage by telling customers 'for environmental reasons' they no longer will change towels other than if requested.
Min wage has also increased costs, as they pay a little over but have had to keep in line with increases

I work in the civil service and they've had to increase the subsistence allowances for hotel night rates due to the increases in London in particular, no one could get under the cap!

I work in a hotel and we're getting a lot of comments about the increases in price, and it's because well, of the increases in price for what we pay for.
I am not privy to our bills but I reckon who ever opens them probably needs a strong drink first, lights on 24/7, kitchen and restaurant fired up ready to go for 14 hours a day, cellar equipment running 24/7 and that's before you get to needing to pay more if you want staff because chefs especially can pretty much name their price right now, they're really thin on the ground, and pretty essential, and the increases food, cleaning stuff etc.
And yes, people walking out of the room leaving lights and TVs on and the heater on full blast - sometimes need to go into rooms to fill requests and of course housekeeping do and the amount of times we find this just isn't funny. We're investing in the system where you need the key to put the electric on but that's requiring some big work and so it's slow progress, and the rooms we've changed have been found more the once with people who ask for two keys, leaving one in the slot (or a substitute) so everything stays on because they want to charge something up, so it's starting to look like a wasted investment anyway.

The costs to the business have increased - so therefore the cost to the customer has too.

These are all really good points. I guess I was just caught off guard by how much it's all gone up.

I do agree with a previous poster about Airbnb, though have felt less guilty about my previous city usage as it's always been a room in someone's house which I guess is a welcome extra income. But where it's whole properties turned over to it, it is killing communities and making it impossible for locals to stay living in the area.

I had looked at private rooms in Youth Hostels (I really don't want a dorm) and even they were £180!
I hadn't thought of Uni Halls, wouldn't know how to find out about that. Is there a website?

It's the 28th of June which is a Wednesday. I'm a bit oblivious to large events taking place, it's a small thing I am attending. Is there something on that I am unaware of?

There are also 2 football finals in June… this bumps prices up massively around parts of london for a few days either side of the fixtures.

I work on an outer London main road which has a number of huge hotels with some prices posted outside. The rates seem to have doubled in two years. There used to be £49 signs and yesterday the lowest I saw was £101 (Ibis). Two of them are now migrant accommodation so that will have reduced supply but mostly it will be their costs have risen.

oh heavens....i just checked and it's the FA Cup Final on the 3rd, when we also have an event in London! At least that time I am with DH so we can be less picky about where we stay, but will probably need deep pockets for that one too!

I've done Uni Halls and honestly it was grim and never again. Bear in mind that the rooms they have available may also be being used by councils for emergency homeless accommodation.

I stay in London every week and have moved from Premier Inn, to Travelodge, to Travelodge further out and now AirBnB in someone's spare room.

When you book is important too. Book a few months in advance of a known event and it will be £40. Book closer to the time and that can easily rocket up to £100+.

Depends where you're going, and when. I am organising an event in Glasgow city centre in November, and the Premier Inn right in the city centre is £47.50 a night.

The price of everything is rising though, and agree that the demand for travel is back to where we were pre-pandemic, finally.

www.speedybooker.com/en-GB/vendor/astorlondon

^ This is UCL halls near Tottenham Court Road/Euston

surely it is the rise in price of energy
and they need heating which uses energy

It's the 28th of June which is a Wednesday. I'm a bit oblivious to large events taking place, it's a small thing I am attending. Is there something on that I am unaware of?

Pride London is happening on the 1st July, and there are usually events etc both before and after that weekend, so there’s probably a knock-on effect due to that too.

^^ £94 for the night you want

Two pronged approach.

Business costs have increased enormously, i.e. minimum wage increase, shortage of workers, massive hike in gas and electricity costs, food price inflation. Hotels use a lot of power, provide a lot of food and are labour intensive, so their "inflation" of overhead costs over the last couple of years will be a lot more than the headline average inflation figure of around 10%.

Add to that higher demand - I do think people became accustomed to "discount" prices when demand was low, and lost sight of the "normal" price of a room. Realistically, a hotel is not making any profit if it sells a room at £50 or less, yet that's what a lot of people got used to due to the online booking websites selling unbooked rooms at a discount.

Brexit - staff more expensive, stuff more expensive

Plus general inflation, plus the hit they took during COVID, plus a rise in post COVID travel.

London hotels are all v expensive now. And my last train home to midlands is a lot earlier than it was pre Covid. It’s understandable but very annoying.

If you are based in Scotland you could get a sleeper train and combine accommodation and travel in one.