Daily business travel rates for hotel, taxi transportation and meals in European gateway cities remained relatively flat from the last quarter of 2024 into the first quarter of 2025, rising just over 1 percent considering the spend categories as a whole.
Hotel rates for most cities were flat to down around 3 percent, but there were a few standouts both in terms of slightly steeper rate decreases in Q1 and increases. Stockholm saw the steepest average rate decline across upper-upscale, upscale and midscale tiers, falling a little more than 6 percent. Amsterdam hotel rates fell slightly more than 4 percent.
Munich, Zurich and Rome, on the other hand, experienced hotel rate increases for the first quarter. Booked business travel rates on average ran more than 11 percent higher than in Q4; in Zurich business travelers were looking at a 9-plus percent increase on their hotel bills and in Rome business travel hotel bookings were almost 9 percent higher on average for the quarter.
Meal costs across breakfast, lunch and dinner also remained relatively flat on average going into 2025, when taking the cities as a group. Certain cities—London and Rome stood out the most—saw relatively steep increases for dining. London was up $13 per day to $169, or about 9 percent over 2024. Meal costs in Rome rose to $166 in 2024, also about 9 percent over 2024. The majority of cities saw meal prices rise about half that amount and a couple of cities saw slight declines—Paris was one of those. Zurich, however, was estimated at a $17 drop to $187 across breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s still Europe’s most expensive dining destination in BTN’s Corporate Travel Index, but business diners may get a little bit of a reprieve in the city compared to 2024.
Taxi transportations costs in each of Europe’s gateway cities remained flat, according to BTN data sources. BTN gathers taxi rates and meal data on an annual basis.