Across the road from Lake Geneva, sits Geneva’s and the world’s most expensive hotel suite. The Hotel President Wilson’s Royal Penthouse Suite is reported to cost $83,500 per night – the price is not listed on the hotel’s website but costs this much according to CNN.
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For most of those planning to visit Geneva, this price is, thankfully, an outlier.
According to a report by the accounting firm PwC, the average nightly cost of a hotel in Geneva was €242.90 in 2017, far less than a night in the Hotel President Wilson’s Royal Penthouse Suite, but still the most expensive city in Europe, far behind Prague (€85.60), the cheapest.
Prize for the second most expensive hotels went to Paris (€231.30), followed by Zurich (€203.90). London (€169.20), in fourth place, was on average 30% cheaper than Geneva.
The ranking of these four is forecast to stay the same in 2018 and 2019, according to the report, with prices in 2019 climbing 1% to €245.80 in Geneva. Average hotel prices in Zurich are forecast to be 4% lower at €195.60 by 2019, but still Europe’s third most costly.
High hotel prices in Geneva and Zurich did not correlate with high occupancy. In 2017, Geneva (70.1%) and Zurich (72.8%) ranked 10th and 8th on occupancy. London (81.7%) was highest.
The report is directed at the hotel industry. However, one element of it offers useful insight for travelers. One of the challenges facing hoteliers is online travel agencies (OTA). These agencies charge hotels commissions as high as 20% to 25% when selling rooms, so booking a room directly with a hotel substantially boosts their margins.
With this saving to hotels in mind, negotiating a price directly with them is at least worth a try.
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