How much would you expect to cough up for a five-star hotel in a major city?
Travellers can pay anywhere from an average $192 a night to an average $499 a night in cities around the world, according to the latest Hotel Price Index from Hotels.com.
Berlin in Germany is the cheapest place to go five-star, with an average nightly rate of $192, while Budapest, Beijing and Bangkok also average less than $200 a night.
Sydney and Melbourne are in the next tier up but still relatively affordable, with nightly rates at five-star properties averaging $269 and $228 respectively.
The time to adjust your expectations or be prepared for financial pain is when visiting Paris and New York, which are the most expensive cities for five-star digs, averaging $499 a night and $498 a night respectively. Ouch.
Also at the pricey end are Los Angeles ($410), London ($393), Rome ($363), Singapore ($345) and Hong Kong ($321).
Las Vegas is another good place to pick up five-star rooms at the cheaper end of the scale, as long as you don’t lose the difference at the tables.
This article is an excerpt from Jane E. Fraser’s weekly travel column in The Sun Herald, Sydney.
