"Was your hotel room worth the price paid?" This is the question currently being investigated by www.hotel.info, the free online hotel reservation service for 210,000 hotels worldwide. www.hotel.info is analysing the 600,000 hotel ratings of hotel.info booking customers from around the world in terms of the price performance of 3 and 4 star hotels. The hotel.info Value for Money Index as at the end of 2008 reveals the following, sometimes surprising results: guests consider that hotels in Tokyo, Japan, represent the best value for money on the world stage. Major cities such as New York, Moscow and London are disappointing in contrast, not even making it into the top 20. A comparison of British destinations reveals Bournemouth as the best.

Equally notable is the fact that none of the international capitals in the top listing achieved scores of 8 or more out of a possible 10 points. The top score in the international ranking was 7.84 points (Tokyo), with Lisbon (7.71) and Prague (7.66) occupying positions 2 and 3 respectively. London, meanwhile, has to be satisfied with a weak rating of 5.84, and has not made it into the top city listings.

Elsewhere in Britain, the hotel.info Value for Money Index contains some rather unexpected results: whilst the surprise winner, Bournemouth, beat Southampton, Portsmouth and Bristol to the top spot with a score of 8.21, Manchester, Birmingham and London put in a below average performance, being in the bottom third of the national ranking. Obviously the hotels in these destinations are offering below average value for money.

Overall, hotels in major British cities fared only moderately well by international standards with regard to offering value for money. In comparison with the 7.42 average score for the major cities from all of the countries represented in the study (including Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, the USA and China), the British result, with a value for money index rating of just 6.50, is significantly below average.

hotel.info Value for Money index. The hotel reservation service regularly compares guest reviews of the value for money provided by 3 and 4 star hotels for the purposes of this index. hotel.info asks the question "How happy are you with the service you received in relation to the money you paid?" Guests contributed their rating of value for money using a points based system (from 0 to 10). hotel.info customer reviews now number approximately 600,000, with more than 1,000 new reviews being added every day.

hotel.info Global Top 20 (major cities)
1. Tokyo 7.84
2. Lisbon 7.71
3. Prague 7.66
4. Berlin 7.60
5. Beijing 7.35
6. Warsaw 7.33
7. Ottawa 7.29
8. Athens 7.24
9. Istanbul 7.14
10. Dublin 7.13
11. Madrid 7.09
12. Zagreb 7.07
13. Singapore 7.00
14. Paris 6.96
15. Bangkok 6.91
16. Amsterdam 6.68
17. Washington 6.52
18. Rome 6.49
19. Rio de Janeiro 6.33
20. Stockholm 5.86

hotel.info UK Top 15
1. Bournemouth 8.21
2. Southampton 8.09
3. Portsmouth 7.50
4. Bristol 6.84
5. Glasgow 6.60
6. Liverpool 6.53
7. Edinburgh 6.45
8. Oxford 6.25
9. Manchester 6.23
10. Nottingham 6.18
11. Birmingham 6.07
12. London 5.84
13. Cardiff 5.83
14. Coventry 5.72
15. Brighton 4.96