The Venetian in Macau. (Shutterstock)
As a global playground for the world’s billionaires, Macau has landed on the list of the world’s top three most expensive cities for hotels thanks to its wide range of luxe accommodations for high rollers.
Beating out the likes of Miami, Dubai, and London, the global gambling destination came in third after New York and Swiss resort town St. Moritz on the list of cities with the world's priciest hotels on the newly released "Accommodation Price Index” study completed by travel booking site GoEuro. The company collected data from over 60,000 properties and looked at the median prices of hotels across the quality spectrum to calculate its results.
As Macau has felt the impacts of China’s anti-corruption campaign, many casinos and hotels have been expanding mid-range services and family entertainment to tap into the Chinese middle-class market. Even hotels targeted toward this segment aren’t cheap, however, since tourist demand currently exceeds the supply of hotels.
In addition, the Chinese Special Administrative Region remains a VIP destination with many new high-profile luxury hospitality projects in the works. Starting in 2015, wealthy visitors can stay at the Louis XIII hotel and casino, where they can rent out a $130,000-a-night suite and splurge on multi-million dollar diamond jewelry at the complex’s invitation-only shopping atelier. 2017 is set to be a big year for major openings by big names, which will include Zaha Hadid’s City of Dreams hotel, Karl Lagerfeld’s 20-story project, and the Palazzo Versace Macau.
The next-highest China location on the list was Hong Kong, which came in at 15th despite the fact that it is currently the second-most expensive city for real estate in the world. Only two other Chinese cities made it onto the 150-strong list: Beijing came in at 129th, ahead of Shanghai in 141st. They may be low in the rankings for now, but rising Chinese incomes and interest in luxury hotels combined with a luxury hotel building boom across the country is likely to give Chinese locales a more prominent place in the years to come.