Accommodation is the number one expense for both business and leisure travelers, topping the price of transport by 25% and dining by 40%.
In the last 10 years the hospitality industry has evolved significantly, and an increasing number of travelers are now favouring the unique experience and personal charm of staying in shared accommodation* over traditional hotels. Additionally, millennials are taking a greater share of the market, helping hostels grow at a faster pace than the hotel industry.
GoEuro has undertaken an impartial price index study of 150 cities** and over 60,000 properties to analyze the price effect on the industry and how this affects travelers. With the traveler in mind, they have not factored local purchasing power into the calculations*** in order to reflect real world prices. (This is not a comparison of different types of accommodation, but is instead a price ranking of the cities listed.)
Footnotes
- * The Airbnb price should not be compared to hotel prices within the same city, as the factors used only reflect a segment of the available offerings. To calculate the Airbnb price they averaged the median cost of booking an entire property for 2 and 4 people over a range from June 1 – December 31, 2014 to include high and low season periods. They collected data directly from the Airbnb website for over 40,000 properties across 150 cities.
- ** Cities were chosen based on several factors. For cities outside of Europe, they selected based on population, size of hospitality industry, and number and availability of 1-4 star hotels. Additionally, for cities within Europe, they factored in the volume of inbound transport bookings on GoEuro over the past 12 months.
- *** The formula is based on the average cost of a hotel room, a hostel bed and an Airbnb property in each city. All prices were converted from local currency to Euro using the Bloomberg exchange on Monday, November 17, 2014.
- To calculate the hotel room price they averaged the median prices for 1, 2, 3 and 4 star hotels in each city for a stay in over a range from June 1 – December 31, 2014 to include high and low season periods. They also factored in prices for 1, 2 and 4 people, then divided the total to get the price shown. In total, they collected data directly from hotels and several online aggregators for over 16,000 properties across 150 cities.
- To calculate the hostel price they averaged the median rate of a single bed in a shared dorm in each city over a range from June 1 – December 31, 2014 to include high and low season periods. They collected data directly from hostels and several online aggregators for over 3,000 properties across 150 cities.
- They calculated the price of a 5 star hotel separately to the price of a 1-4 star hotel, as the price range at the most expensive resorts are not always representative of the prices of a city as whole, and can vary dramatically based on season and availability. They used the same dates and factors as the 1-4 star hotels when calculating the average price. They found that the more 5 star hotels a city has, the more affordable they become relative to the price of a 4 star hotel. eg. Dubai vs Punta Cana
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