London Olympics 2012 doubled hotel rooms price

Visitors to London in 2012 will pay twice as much to stay in the city as last year, according to an annual survey of hotel room prices.

The new study ran by Hotels.com found prices for booking in March this year for August are 102% higher than for the same months last year.

The website, which is part of the Expedia group of companies, says the average price of a hotel room in London will be £213 ($337) this summer.

Between 2010 and 2011 room prices worldwide rose 4%.

UK travelers generally saw rises in prices in more than two thirds of popular destinations, with increases in 69 of the 88 city or resort locations analyzed across the world, one of the main reasons for the rise was currency movements.

The survey, of 142,000 properties in almost 20,000 locations found political events had a marked impact.

Greece’s economic woes led to a 10% fall in the price of a hotel room in Athens.

Elsewhere there were sharp movements in accommodation prices as a result of the Arab Spring and prices in Japan were affected by the earthquake.

Japan’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011 saw price cuts in Hiroshima by 16% to $106 and in Kyoto by 11% to $144.

The Arab Spring protests and war in Libya hit prices across the Middle East and North Africa with average rates falling in Egypt by 22%, in Tunisia by 9%, in Lebanon, which borders Syria, by 21% and in Qatar by 27%.

Last year, prices fell 2% in Asia year-on-year but rose in all other areas: 8% in the Pacific, 5% in North America, 4% in Latin America, 3% in the Caribbean and 2% in Europe and the Middle East.

The average hotel price in Australia rose 13% to $171 reflecting the country’s strong currency and robust economy and other fast-growing economies registered similar rises, with Rio de Janeiro in Brazil up 13% and Hong Kong up 18% thanks to growth within China’s economy.

David Roche, president of Hotels.com, said: “Price volatility in 2011 meant UK travelers found it more expensive to stay in the majority of their favorite destinations abroad.

“A variety of factors, including currency movements and a growth in corporate travel, pushed up prices at a time when many consumers were already struggling to pay their bills at home.”

David Roche added though that room rates were still generally lower than they were in 2005.