Nearly 30% of Americans Avoid Visiting Major U.S. Cities, Believing They Are Too Expensive

By Theodore Koumelis

To help overcome perception, Hotwire pinpoints timing strategy to get major savings in these "Most Avoided" cities, and also announces the "Great Weekend Sale", featuring discounts of up to 70 percent off hotels site-wide.

Hotwire.com, a leading discount travel site, revealed more results from its second annual American Travel Behavior Survey, conducted online on its behalf by Harris Interactive in October 2012 among over 2,000 U.S. adults. According to the survey, many Americans avoid traveling to major domestic cities because these destinations seem too expensive to visit. Some cities that people admit to avoiding because of perceived costliness include New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC and Miami. However, the experts at Hotwire know that all of these destinations have an easy way to make them much more affordable – just avoid weekdays and take a fun weekend trip instead! Listed below are some of these "most avoided" cities, as well as the savings levels that can be found when following this one simple approach.

It is true that the cities featured below tend to be some of the most expensive to visit, but there are specific times when rates for these destinations are at their highest – weekdays. For major hubs like New York City, mid-week is typically peak business travel time, when plenty of visitors are filling up metro areas and driving up cost. As a result, hotels and airlines tend to keep prices high to take advantage of the activity. However, when the weekend comes, business travel all but disappears and there are plenty of rooms and seats to fill. As a result, prices fall to attract the leisure traveler and these so-called expensive cities become much more affordable.

To further incentivize travelers to consider a weekend trip as vacation season heats up, Hotwire has launched the "Great Weekend Sale" – its biggest sale ever. During the month of May, travelers now can save even more off Hotwire's already deeply discounted Hot Rate hotels when booking over the weekend, as much as 70 percent off in some destinations.

"At Hotwire, we strive to help travelers make the most of their travel budgets, and when it comes to larger cities, many folks feel like they can't afford a trip to visit them. But when armed with the right information and resources, these cities are much more affordable than people think," said Clem Bason, president of the Hotwire Group. "When analyzing pricing data for many of these cities, it became clear to us that the largest savings are to be had over the weekends, when leisure travelers want to travel the most. And with our "Great Weekend Sale" in full effect, people who book a Hot Rate weekend stay this month can take advantage of even bigger savings on hotels, which hopefully puts great cities back on top of everyone's wish list."

Below are some of the cities that ranked highest in perceived expensiveness, accompanied by a breakdown of how much money folks can save by booking a weekend trip versus a mid-week trip:

Above nightly rates are based on Hot Rate hotel bookings made on Hotwire.com on 5/1/13 for specified dates in spring and summer 2013.

Source: Travel Daily news