Irish Hotels Federation slams price hike claims as ‘outrageous’
The site yesterday released its Hotels Price Index in which it said average nationwide hotel room prices had increased by 2%. It said the biggest increase was in Killarney, where the average paid for a room for a night was €107.
However, the Irish Hotels Federation said the figures used for the index were “based on a very limited share of Irish hotels online sales and the sample size is only reflective of accommodation available on the hotels.com website”.
“It is too small to be representative of the 60,000 hotel and guesthouse rooms available for sale every day in Ireland,” it said. “Figures from the Central Statistics Office, which are based on a nationally representative sample of prices, show that inflation in accommodation services was at 0% for the 12 months to June 2013 and was in fact down at -1.1% for the 12 months to July 2013.”
IHF president Michael Vaughan said: “It is irresponsible and misleading for hotels.com to give the impression that hotel prices have risen when this is clearly not the case as borne out by the most recent CSO figures which show prices have in fact decreased.
“The fact that prices on hotels.com are higher is in no way reflective of the excellent value that is available in the market. This is nothing other than a cheap shot at publicity on the back of hotels that are doing their best to get their industry back on an even keel.”
In response, hotels.com said its index data was 100% reliable and is used as a reference tool by the media, financial analysts, investors, tourism bodies, hoteliers, and academics around the world.
“In contrast to other reports, the HPI is a trend analysis showing the actual prices paid per room night by Hotels.com customers in hotels (chain and independent) as well as in options such as self-catering and bed & breakfast properties. It includes all bookings to Ireland and individual Irish cities made through the 85 Hotels.com websites, mobile apps, and call centres around the world from January to June 2013, which is a very significant sample data set.
“We are not claiming in this HPI report that Irish hoteliers have increased their prices. The HPI looks at what travellers actually paid for their accommodation in the first six months 2013. They paid slightly more, which should be good news for the hotel industry and shows signs of recovery and greater demand.”
