Moscow leads the world in hotel room service charges

Hotel extras, such as food, drinks and dry cleaning, cost more in Moscow than in any other major city, new research has shown.

The survey, carried out by the website TripAdvisor, compared the total cost of several items – a club sandwich, peanuts, water and a cocktail ordered on room service, and the dry cleaning of a single shirt – in four-star hotels around the world.

In Moscow, a city already renowned for lacking good-value accommodation, the total bill was £53.05, making it the priciest destination to feature in the study.

Paris, where the five items were found to cost £44.17, on average, was the second most expensive city, followed by Stockholm (£43.97), Oslo (£43.15) and Zurich (£42.90). A club sandwich in the Swiss city was shown to cost the most, on average – £18.67.

London, where the total bill came to £34.36, was the 11th costliest destination.

Cape Town’s hotels were found to offer the best value for travellers, followed by Sharm el Sheikh, Mumbai, Istanbul and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico.

A recent study into the average cost of hotel rooms during 2012, carried out by the website Hotels.com, found that Monte Carlo was the world’s costliest destination, with a double room priced at £200 per night on average. It was followed by Muscat (£188), New York (£179), Rio de Janeiro (£177) and Moscow (£160).

Room rates in London were priced at £110 per night, on average, last year.

The cheapest accommodation was to be found in southeast Asia, with Phnom Penh (£40), Pattaya (£48), Hanoi (£49), Siem Reap (£51) and Chiang Mai (£53) all providing excellent value.

The biggest price rises were seen in Sharm El Sheikh, where average rates rose 34 per cent to £92 per night, a trend that can be attributed to its recovery from the fall in visitors that followed the Arab Spring in 2011. Rates also rose sharply in Perth, Australia, thanks to a recent mining boom.

Significant falls in hotel rates were seen in Bogota (-17% to £92), Athens (-10% to £81) and Alicante (-10% to £71).

Average cost of room service

*Items were a club sandwich, peanuts, a bottle of water, a can of coke and a mini bottle of vodka, and the dry cleaning of one shirt. Click here to read the full report.