Diwali gift: Most Mumbai hotels spare the high season price hike

Thanks to this year's recession, last year's terror attack and the ongoing swine flu panic, Mumbai hotels are looking at foregoing the usual 20-percent October to March price hike this season. The recently concluded Jet Airways strike hasn't helped either.

Room occupancy at Mumbai hotels is down from 85 to 65 percent the last 12 months.

But the larger, world-wide picture is equally somber for hotels.

“Not since 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, has there been such a collapse ... in global hotel prices," says David Roche, president of Hotels.com which publishes a regular Hotel Price Index (HPI) report, based on bookings made on Hotels.com worldwide.

"The dampening effect of falling consumer demand has been compounded by sharply increased hotel capacity."

In the first half of 2009 an ever larger number of hotel rooms chased a dwindling stream of customers -- lowered prices by 17% globally.

But though the hotel downturn is true for Mumbai too, Mid Day reports a few up-market Mumbai hotels who aren't reacting. At least not yet.

"We will wait and watch. We will take a call on the room rates depending on the occupancy," said Pankaj Sampat, general manager, Taj President Hotel, Colaba. "We are expecting good business from November so we will hike rates. South Mumbai hotels may face low occupancy as compared to hotels in the suburbs," said a spokesperson from ITC Maratha hotel in Andheri, near the airport.

From a consumer's point of view, however Roche says, “[they] have not seen prices this low since 2003 leading many commentators to propose that real value has returned to the hotel market. We think so too. It is time to travel again.”

Just in time for Diwali.

According to the Mid Day report, average room rates in five-star Mumbai hotels range from Rs 5,000 to 10,000 a night for a basic air-conditioned room.