Hotel Prices in Delhi

Anyone traveling to Delhi should take note that hotel prices in this crazy city are not the bargain that you might expect. Having spent more of my time in South East Asia and China I was surprised to see that a simple 3 star hotel in Connaught Place is going for more than US$150 – a similar room in a hotel a few stops away on the Metro in the ‘rustic’ suburb of Karol Bargh is still US$80.

In Bangkok a mid-class hotel like the Viengtai Hotel, which we use for some of our groups, is under US$60. And for this you get a great location, a swimming pool and a room that is big enough to comfortably hold 2 people. The rooms in Delhi were small and tired, many didn’t have outside windows.

The US$150 hotel I just stayed at in Delhi would sell for about US$30 in Bangkok.

The cause of all this, according to a friend who works for a tour company in Delhi, is that with all the business people traveling through Delhi setting up deals, visiting their call centres and making lots of money, hotels are able to charge whatever they like. With multi-million dollar deals in the works businesses don’t care if the person making it happen pays US$500 a night for a hotel. Those traveling on smaller business budgets are still able to pay high prices because the comparative prices with the US and Europe still make it relatively cheap. All of this has had a pull up affect on all hotel prices. The city is under supplied in peak season so hotels can charge these crazy prices.

So if you are heading to Delhi between October and March don’t necessarily think that you’ll get what you pay for. Instead you’ll get what the hotels decide to give you for your budget.