The Hotels.com™ Hotel Price Index™ (HPI^®) is a regular report on hotel prices in major destinations across the world.

The HPI is based on bookings made on Hotels.com sites and prices shown are those actually paid by customers per room per night, including taxes and fees, rather than advertised rates.

The HPI is respected as the definitive report on hotel prices paid around the world and is used as a reference tool by the media, hoteliers, financial analysts, investors, tourism bodies and academics.

The international scale of Hotels.com, in terms of the number of customers, properties and destinations covered, makes the Hotel Price Index one of the most comprehensive benchmarks available. It incorporates both chain and independent hotels, as well as options such as self-catering and bed & breakfast properties.

The HPI started in 2004 and was set at 100. It tracks all bookings across all star ratings from 1-star to 5-star and focuses on two main sources of data:

1. Global and Regional Index changes

This chapter examines the movement in the Hotel Price Index since 2004 on a global and regional basis.

• The average price of a hotel room around the world rose by 1% during January-June 2015, when compared with the same period in 2014.
• This is the eleventh half- year running that the HPI has increased but this result is one of the lowest, matching that of the first half of 2010.
• The Index stood at 116 for the first six months of 2015, not yet back to its peak of 119 from the first quarter of 2007.
• Of the six regions coved by the HPI, the Index rose in four and fell in two.
  • North America led the way with a rise of 4%, driving the global rise.
  • The Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific all added 1%.
  • The Europe & the Middle East region was down 1% with Asia as the other faller, losing 3%.

More in-depth analysis into what caused these movements and how they influenced prices in individual cities and countries can be found below and in subsequent chapters.

North American record-breaker

• The North American HPI recorded the highest regional growth rate of 4% in the first half of 2015.
• This took the regional Index to 122, a new all-time high for the region, overtaking the previous peak of 119 set prior to the global financial crisis in the first half of 2007 for the first time.
• The North American HPI has now risen 25 index points since its lowest level of 97 reached in the second half of 2009.

Latin America on the rise

• The 1% increase recorded by Latin America just matched the global average but this was enough to take the regional HPI to 130, its highest ever half-yearly figure since the first half of 2007 and only beaten by the Caribbean.
• The region has now risen 18 index points since its lowest reading of 112 from the second half of 2009.
• Growth has been somewhat erratic in the half-yearly periods since then, ranging from flat to an increase of 6%.

Better performance for the Pacific

• The Pacific regional HPI was the third region to see a slight 1% increase, taking it to 122, the same as North America.
• However, this was a small improvement on the first half of 2014 result when it was flat.
• The Pacific has recorded a good recovery from the time of the global economic downturn, adding 24 points since the first half of 2009. However, it remained six points behind its high of 128 from the second half of 2007.

Slight loss for Europe & the Middle East

• The HPI for Europe & the Middle East lost 1% in the first half of 2015, six percentage points down from the result it achieved in the same period in 2014.
• This dropped the regional HPI to 109, matching the level reached in the second half of 2006 when it was moving in the other direction and still seven points behind its yearly peak of 116 recorded in 2007.
• An HPI of 109 was still way behind all the other regions, apart from Asia on 102. In contrast, the Caribbean was 34 points ahead on 143.

Asia the highest faller

• Now with six half-yearly periods with either losses or no growth, Asia experienced the highest fall amongst the regions on 3% in the first half of 2015 when compared with the same period in 2014.
• Standing at 102, the Index was only two points higher than where it began in 2004, so Asia continued to represent the best value region for hotel prices by a considerable margin.
• The area’s peak was reached in the second half of 2007 when its Index stood at 137, the highest of all the regions. Since then, it has lost 35 points and remained the lowest placed, seven points behind Europe & the Middle East.