Average
booked hotel rates in the first quarter of 2011 rose in all but seven of 40
major cities tracked by online hotel booking agency HRS. Increases against the
same period in 2010 included Mumbai (35 percent), Sydney (27 percent), New York
(15 percent) and London (up 13 percent). Decliners included crisis-hit Tokyo
(down 11 percent).
"Unless they had incorporated rate rises into
their budgets, travel managers and whoever they report to up the line may have
been caught out by this," HRS U.K. and Ireland managing director Jon West
told BTN, adding that approximately
60 percent of HRS rates are bought by corporate travelers.