Dubai room rates buck global downturn - survey

A new hotel price index for the fourth quarter of 2008 has revealed Dubai was the second most expensive city in the world for room rates.

The Hotels.com Hotel Price Index put the emirate second only to Moscow and showed that it had bucked the global trend in hotel room price decline, registering an increase of 12 percent to AED953 ($260) in the fourth quarter last year compared to the same quarter in 2008.

This compared to the average price of a hotel room around the world falling by 12 percent last year, Emirates Business reported on Thursday.

According to Hotels.com's sub-index, an average price of four-star room per night was AED755 in Dubai in fourth quarter last year.