Edinburgh ‘most expensive’ for New Year hotels: survey

LONDON

Edinburgh will be the most expensive city for a hotel room this New Year’s Eve, a survey by Travel Magazine has found.

The least expensive double room in a hotel rated at least three stars will cost £302 ($447) in the Scottish capital Thursday Dec. 31, a mark-up of nearly 600 percent on the price for a regular weekday.

New Year celebrations in Edinburgh -- known as Hogmanay, the Scots language word for the last day of the year -- are among the largest in the world. Much of the city’s streets are closed off for thousands of revelers and the country observes a public holiday for the first two days of January.

Reykjavik ranked second in the list by Travel Magazine, with rooms in the Icelandic capital starting at £296, while the Netherlands’ largest city Amsterdam was third with £236.

London, which hosts a popular firework display on the River Thames around the London Eye Ferris wheel, was the fifth priciest city for hotels overall in Europe.

"While some hotels increase their rates by 300 percent or more on Dec. 31, you can still find three star hotels for less than £200, and four stars for around £250," said Paul Joseph from TravelMag.com.

"Given that around 20 percent of hotels in Central London are still offering available rooms, rates may even start to drop a little at the last minute," Joseph added.

The survey only considered centrally located hotels with positive average guest reviews. Other European capitals in the top 10 included Vienna, Dublin, Prague and Copenhagen.