If it’s Moscow, don’t open the minibar

The size of your minibar bill depends more on where you stay than how many mini-bottles of alcohol and packets of crisps you eat.

The size of your minibar bill depends more on where you stay than how many mini-bottles of alcohol and packets of crisps you eat.

Published Mar 26, 2013

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London - The size of your minibar bill depends more on where you stay than how many mini-bottles of alcohol and packets of crisps you eat.

here is a huge disparity in the price you pay for your hotel room extras, according to international travel site TripAdvisor.

Cape Town, for instance, offers bargains while Moscow makes guests shell out four times as much for those packets of nuts.

It surveyed items such as room service orders, drinks from the minibar and dry cleaning and found Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, Mumbai in India and Istanbul in Turkey among the best-value destinations.

In contrast, Moscow, Paris and Stockholm had the priciest extras.

A packet of peanuts was £1.20 (R16) in a Cape Town hotel and a whopping £7.96 in a Moscow establishment.

Similarly, a club sandwich in a Cape Town hotel was £4.11, but £13.95 in Moscow and an eye-watering £18.67 in Zurich.

A bottle of water, a can of Coke, a mini bottle of vodka and dry cleaning were also included in the cost comparison survey, which was based on four-star hotels.

All told, the items cost £12.61 in Cape Town, with Sharm el Sheikh at £15.27 and Mumbai £16.27. Other value-for-money hotels were in Jakarta, Indonesia, Marrakech, Morocco, and Taipei, Taiwan.

The items in Moscow were £53.05, Paris £44.17 and Stockholm £43.97.

Oslo, Helsinki and Tokyo also had expensive hotel extras.

London, although comparatively costly, fell outside the top 10 most expensive destinations, coming in 11th.

In London four-star hotels, on average, a club sandwich was £11.00, a bottle of water £2.80, peanuts £4.00, a can of Coke £2.65, a mini bottle of vodka £7.25 and dry cleaning a shirt £6.66.

TripAdvisor's Emma Shaw said: “For those willing to shell out a bit more on flights, it seems there is money to be saved in south east Asia or Africa.

“For Brits looking to stay a little closer to home in Europe, there is a price to pay and that price is on average more than four times as expensive.” - Daily Mail

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