Skift Take
Many of the price surveys focus on objects familiar to to the travelers where the survey came out of, rather than their equivalent abroad. So that gives you a club sandwich in Tokyo as opposed to a good bowl of ramen.
Hotel guests in Geneva will need to fork out almost £20, on average, for a single club sandwich, new research has revealed.
The Swiss city topped the annual Club Sandwich Index (CSI), published today by the website Hotels.com, which claims to provide holidaymakers with a rough indication of the cost of visiting a variety of destinations.
After studying in-room menus at 30 hotels in Geneva – ranging from three- to five-star establishments – the average price for the popular chicken, bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato sandwich was found to be a hefty £19.96. One five-star hotel in the city charged guests a staggering £34.33 for the humble snack, while the cheapest on offer was £9.27.
Paris, 2012’s priciest destination – came second in this year’s survey. A club sandwich in the French capital is likely to set you back around £17.99, on average.
A trio of Scandinavian capitals – Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen – came next in the poll. The tiered sandwiches were found to cost £17.51, £15.15 and £14.64, respectively, in those cities.
London came eighth in the study, with the bill coming to £13.53, on average, with prices ranging from £6 to £26.
The most cost-effective of the 28 destinations to feature were New Delhi (£5.97), Mexico City (£6.91), Taipei (£7.45), Bogota (£7.48) and Bangkok (£7.74).
| City | 2013 price | 2012 price |
|---|---|---|
| Geneva | $31.26 | $31.48 |
| Paris | $28.17 | $31.99 |
| Oslo | $27.42 | $29.49 |
| Stockholm | $23.72 | $21.41 |
| Copenhagen | $22.93 | $18.24 |
| Rome | $22.85 | $23.41 |
| Tokyo | $21.25 | $26.73 |
| London | $21.19 | $18.09 |
| Sydney | $21.08 | $19.11 |
| Hong Kong | $20.33 | $17.74 |
| Helsinki | $20.26 | $21.91 |
| Seoul | $19.04 | $17.46 |
| New York | $17.98 | $16.36 |
| Moscow | $17.32 | $15.83 |
| Amsterdam | $17.10 | $16.08 |
| Berlin | $16.35 | $17.18 |
| Singapore | $15.83 | $14.30 |
| Toronto | $15.66 | $15.52 |
| Dublin | $15.46 | $15.05 |
| Madrid | $15.16 | $15.66 |
| Rio de Janeiro | $14.78 | $17.18 |
| Beijing | $12.95 | $14.00 |
| Buenos Aires | $12.20 | $10.35 |
| Bangkok | $12.12 | n/a |
| Bogota | $11.71 | $13.62 |
| Taipei | $11.67 | n/a |
| Mexico City | $10.82 | $9.85 |
| New Delhi | $9.35 | $9.26 |
Prices have been converted into U.S. dollars
“The Club Sandwich, available on hotel menus across the globe, is the perfect spending barometer, helping tourists factor into their travel plans the everyday cost of simple items such as food and drink,” said Alison Couper from Hotels.com.
“The price changes when comparing 2013 to 2012 hide a complex story of factors from changes in the local price of basic food items through to currency fluctuations. The beauty of the CSI is that we are able to offer British travellers a simple price comparison to show how far their money may stretch in each country.”
A recent survey of holiday costs by TripAdvisor, which compared hotel rates, restaurant, bar and taxi prices in 49 cities, found that Oslo was the most expensive city for British travellers, followed by Zurich and Stockholm.
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Tags: amenities, food and drink
Photo credit: A typical end to a room-service Club Sandwich. Hopkinsii / Flickr