Britons are looking to make use of the extra bank holiday for King Charles’s coronation and escape the UK for a weekend getaway, new figures suggest.
Accommodation search website Trivago said it has seen a doubling of UK bookings in Rome and nearly a doubling in Dublin over the coronation weekend, up 101 per cent and 77 per cent respectively.
Dublin may not be the most cost-effective option for British visitors, with the bill for a two-night break, including €88 for an evening meal for two with wine and €16 for a 48-hour public-transport pass, now at €506 – up by 21 per cent since 2021 and by 32 per cent since 2020.
This makes Dublin the fourth most expensive European citybreak destination, according to the UK Post Office's City Costs Barometer.
It comes as hotels in London and surrounding areas have ramped up their prices amid soaring demand from visitors from across the UK and overseas.
Prices of a hotel in London on the day of the coronation have surged by 45 per cent year-on-year to £203 (€232) on average, up from £140 a year ago, according to Trivago.
The latest booking trends also suggest many visitors are shunning London on the weekend of the ceremony.
Data shows that the searches for the capital over the weekend are 7 per cent lower than for the same weekend a year ago, and down a hefty 18 per cent among searches in the UK only.
When compared with 2019 pre-pandemic levels, searches for London in the UK and overseas on Trivago’s site are 30 per cent lower that weekend.
Hotel occupancy figures from STR, a division of global real estate data firm CoStar, also suggest London hotel prices may be putting visitors off.
It found that, as of May 1st, hotel occupancy stood at 73.1 per cent for Friday and 71.8 per cent on Saturday, below the 75.4 per cent and 80.1 per cent respectively seen a year ago.
