Intrinsically linked with the travel and tourism industry, an industry which contributed seven trillion U.S. dollars to the global economy in 2013, the hotel industry is certainly a profitable one. Travelers who are on the road for more than one day need a place to sleep and rest and there are various types of lodging across the world to accommodate for this. Clearly a valuable service, it is no surprise that Euromonitor International forecasted a 550 billion U.S. dollar revenue for the industry in 2016.
In 2014, the occupancy rate (the share of total rooms available which are occupied or rented at a given time) of hotels in all global regions had increased year-on-year for the past couple of years, suggesting more demand for the industry. Europe was the region with the highest occupancy rate in 2014 at 68.8 percent, closely followed by the Asia Pacific region at 68.6 percent. In the same year, the Middle East and Africa was the most expensive region for hotels with an average daily rate of 165.97 U.S. dollars. The Americas is generally the cheapest region each year.
Despite being located in one of the cheapest regions for hotel rates, the most expensive city destination in the world can be found in the United States, New York City. Hotel rates in New York City in 2014 averaged around 360 U.S. dollars per night, according to travel review site TripAdvisor. Seven out of the top ten most expensive city destinations for hotels were in Europe.