Singapore hotels ranked as third most expensive in Asia

Despite overall decline in Asian room rates.

According to the latest Hotel Survey from Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), Singapore hotels ranked as the third most expensive despite overall decline in Asia hotel room rates.

The "supercity" is ranked 16th globally, and falls closely behind Hong Kong and Tokyo in Asia with a 2.53% increase in ARR.

Hotel room rate rises around the world are being led by "supercities" rather than external trends. Historically, where ARR have tended to be affected by external factors, this is no longer the case, with individual "supercities" - destinations popular for both business and leisure visitors - becoming bigger players in a shrinking world.

Room rates in the top 55 global cities showed mixed results, with 26 moving up the rankings, 25 down and four remaining the same. Regardless of this, 23 of those top 55 cities have experienced a drop in their average room rate since the last survey.Mumbai was the standout result in Asia.

A bustling business centre in the subcontinent, the drop in room rate could be something of a surprise. However, it is directly attributable to the creation of business hotel accommodation to the north of the city, where the primary business district is located.

Locally however, exchange rate movements cushioned the fall in rates, although India as a whole has softened as a market, due to the completion of project work which had previously seen an influx of workers to certain regions.

In China, Beijing is once again seeing an uplift in rates as global trade strengthens, whilst in Shanghai a whopping 153,013 new rooms are scheduled to come online between now and 2015. Perhaps even more impressively, despite this, a rise in ARR was still recorded, though this was tempered slightly by exchange rate movements, hence the -2.29% figure shown.

The HRG View, Margaret Bowler, Director Global Hotel Relations: Some of the fastest growing economic regions in the World are in this group and we expect to see some stopping and starting in forthcoming years as they reach maturity - currently, the stop-start nature of supply and demand, with one catching up with the other, means it will take a little time for these destinations to even out.