Hotel rates soaring worldwide

You’re gonna need a bigger boat(-load of money) to survive the cost of vacation this year. According to a Boston Globe article, travelers will need to factor sky-high hotel prices into their 2008 travel budgets, in addition to high fuel prices and the abysmal dollar. In 2007, hotel rates in popular destinations worldwide went up, often by more than 10 percent. Prices are expected to go up even more in 2008 due to increased demand, especially from business and luxury travelers.

Rates in typically expensive places like London and New York City—where the average hotel rate was $321 per night last year—went up, but some of the biggest increases came in up-and-coming destinations like India (48 percent) and Vietnam (40 percent). Cities with notable rate hikes included:

• 15% in New York City
• 24% in Dubai
• 30% in London
• 30% in Paris
• 36% in Singapore
• 69% in Mumbai, India

The Globe article suggests prices should ease a bit in the coming years as popular destinations add new hotels to meet the demand for rooms. In the meantime, the author, David Kauffman, suggests looking into vacation rentals or traveling to places where the exchange rate isn’t so bad, like Thailand and southern Africa. As for me, I suspect this summer I’ll be reacquainting myself with art of setting up a tent.