Out of all the cities listed on the survey, Prague and Vienna had the worst year-on-year declines in revenue per available room in the six months to June. In June, many hotels in Vienna reported a very sharp drop in revenue per available room by 48.3 percent. However, this is compared to last year’s stats, which received a boost from the Euro 2008 football tournament. In fact, rooms in Vienna were full just last June when Austria co-hosted the championships with Switzerland.

Other areas in Europe also saw declines. Berlin and Amsterdam saw declines in revenue per available room by more than 20 percent each when compared to last year’s numbers. It came as no shock to most that London, once again, saw the highest occupancy levels at 87.3 percent in June and 81.1 over the first six months of 2009.

TRI Hospitality Consulting did point out that the great occupancy levels in London have been maintained at the expense of average room rate, which fell by 7.1 percent year-on-year. The deputy managing director of TRI, David Bailey, said that the London market has experienced a decline of 7.1 percent in the average room rate. It is very likely that London will achieve a strong performance over the course of the summer. Bailey also pointed out that the swine flu has had a big impact on the London market as well.

A recent study that was done on 50 plus cities found that 38 of them had an average room rate that either fell or stayed the same for all the hotels. The biggest drop in price was found in Madrid. Here the average room rate for hotels was around £74. This is a 31 percent drop in price when compared to July of 2008. Prices in Barcelona dropped by 28 percent as well when compared to last year. Other places like Amsterdam, Lisbon. Oslo, Rome, Turin, and Bologna also reported sharp drops.

Although this may be bad for the hotel industry, the falling prices are likely to really benefit the few people who are actually traveling and are planning on making last minute bookings this summer. All over continental Europe, prices are falling and great prices are being given out on rooms that may use to have been out of travelers’ price range. Room rates will not stay down forever, so travelers that want to take advantage of it should act soon.

Of course, there is one European city, which for whatever reason posted a rise in room rates. This would be Geneva, and it showed that its room rates were up by 10 percent when compared to July of 2008.