Hunting Hotel LateRooms.com reveals that hotel bookings to Glasgow have increased by almost 200% in the last four years, attracting shoppers and tourists to the heart of Scotland. Often second to Edinburgh in terms of popularity, Glasgow has risen to the top of the discount hotels specialist’s list of high climbers, and is second only to London in the most popular list of shopping destination cities.
Glasgow is currently notching up an average of three times more room bookings a night than it did in 2007, providing a great source of income and a boost for tourism in the city where as Edinburgh Hotels have seen a smaller increase of 130%. People are snubbing the traditionally popular Italian and Spanish destinations for their shopping, with Glasgow beating both bookings in Barcelona and Rome Hotels over recent months. Visitors flock to the numerous shopping malls and stores in Glasgow every weekend, including the Forge, St Enoch and ‘StyleMile’.
Glasgow also took on other popular European shopping cities in the price stakes, proving the cheapest for hotel stays, at its lowest average room rate since 2007. Rooms in suave destinations such as Paris, Geneva and Rome are currently all averaging a higher price on the site, but cosmopolitan London, despite being popular with hotel goers, is the most expensive city destination for an average room rate.
“Shopping is one of the nation’s favourite past-times, and we wanted to analyse where the UK are spending their money on hotels,” said Lynda Matthews, Offline Marketing Manager at LateRooms.com. “LateRooms.com customers are incredibly savvy at snapping up a bargain, and we are pleased to see our home-grown shopping destinations of London and Glasgow doing so well against their European counterparts, in the hotel market as well as the shopping stakes.”