"Was your hotel worth the money?" This was the question investigated by hotel.info, the free online hotel reservation service for over 210,000 hotels worldwide. hotel.info is analysing the over 1 million hotel ratings awarded by hotel.info booking customers from around the world in terms of the price performance of 3 and 4 star hotels. The hotel.info Hotel Value for Money Index for mid 2009 has some surprising results, in comparison with the ranking at the end of 2008.

During the economic crisis, the satisfaction of guests with the performance of the hotels in which they have stayed has risen around the world. Obviously the economic crisis has led to hotel customers believing hotels are offering greater value for money than before. The average of all ratings submitted by customers who had made bookings in the largest 20 major cities of the world has improved from 6.69 points at the end of 2008 to 7.11 points (out of a possible 10) now.

One reason could be the cheaper room prices caused by the recession, since these have fallen by an average of 8-10% since the beginning of the crisis last autumn. After all, the price is an important factor when it comes to assessing the value for money of a hotel. Another factor, however, is that the indicator seems to show that hotels go out of their way to help their guests more in times of crisis - after all, the numbers of travellers have definitely fallen. It is now much more important to fight for every individual customer, in view of the harder competitive environment.

Another interesting aspect is that while the economic crisis has caused many hoteliers to tighten their financial belts, the ensuing job cuts have in no way curtailed the hotels’ levels of customer service.

Given a global comparison, hotel guests regard hotels in Lisbon, Portugal, as providing the best value for money. The Portuguese capital, and its German counterpart, Berlin, pushed the leader from the end of 2008, Tokyo (Japan) back into third place. Major cities such as New York, Moscow and London disappointed in contrast, not even making it into the top 20. Even the major European centres of Paris, Amsterdam and Stockholm in Sweden fell from the top 20, being replaced by Madrid, Helsinki and Dubai. Last year’s UK top two, Bournemouth and Southampton, remained unchanged at the top of the tree.

In the UK, too, the hotel.info Hotel Value for Money Index has returned some unanticipated results. While the winner Bournemouth (7.78) beat competition from Coventry (storming up from 14th to 3rd), Glasgow and Portsmouth to the top spot, Birmingham, Oxford, London and Brighton recorded below-average results and are back in the bottom third of the national ranking. Obviously the hotel trade in these destinations is continuing to offer below-average value for money.

Overall, hotels in major UK cities fared only moderately well at an international level in terms of value for money. In comparison with the 7.33 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 UK result, with a value for money index rating of just 6.71, is significantly below the average country score, and is thus only one place above the bottom in a table of 15 comparable countries.

hotel.info Global Top 20 (major cities)
2009 (middle of year)           
1. Lisbon 7,83
2. Berlin 7,75
3. Tokyo 7,74
4. Prague 7,73
5. Beijing 7,54
6. Budapest 7,45
7. Warsaw 7,37
8. Dublin 7,31
9. Madrid 7,29
10. Athens 7,25
11. Vienna 7,23
12. Ottawa 7,20
13. Istanbul 7,15
14. Helsinki 7,09
15. Zagreb 7,08
16. Bangkok 7,07
17. Singapore 6,88
18. Rome 6,85
19. Washington 6,56
20. Dubai 6,47