Hotel rates across Delhi are spiking as the capital gears up to host the 18th BRICS Summit, with foreign heads of state, diplomats and large delegations expected to descend on the city in the coming days.
Searches surge, rates more than double
Data from travel platform Ixigo shows searches for five-star hotels in Delhi have jumped by around 50 percent. That points to travellers and visiting delegations already scrambling to lock in accommodation for the summit. At several properties, room rates have more than doubled compared with just a week earlier, with the sharpest jump centred around September 12 and 13, the dates when summit-related activity is expected to peak. A number of well-known hotels in the capital are already completely sold out for those dates, and wherever a handful of rooms remain, a single night now costs anywhere between roughly ₹1 lakh and ₹2.4 lakh.
Presidential suites going for ₹14 lakh a night
With heads of state from BRICS member and partner nations, foreign diplomats and high-profile delegations converging on the city, hotels across Lutyens Delhi and Aerocity are running close to full capacity. Presidential and super-luxury suites at these properties are now commanding a record ₹14 lakh for a single night, several times their usual rate. To ensure the safety and convenience of visiting dignitaries, the Ministry of External Affairs and security agencies have already reserved large blocks of rooms at these strategically located hotels, shrinking the inventory left over for other guests even further. The squeeze hasn't stayed confined to luxury suites either; rates for standard executive and deluxe rooms have also risen manifold. Heavy security cordons and VVIP protocol through the summit have made it nearly impossible for ordinary travellers to secure a room at Delhi's top hotels, pushing the overflow demand into premium properties in Gurugram and the wider NCR, which are now under heavy booking pressure of their own.
Bookings up 25 percent year on year
According to Cleartrip's PeekABoo Trends Tracker, hotel bookings in Delhi around the summit weekend are running 25 percent higher than the same period last year, a clear sign of just how much extra footfall the capital is absorbing this time. At the Taj, a room that would normally go for around ₹1.5 lakh a night is now listed at up to ₹14 lakh, nearly a ninefold jump. Most five-star hotels in the city are effectively sold out already, with fresh bookings all but impossible to come by.
Hotels gear up to host foreign delegations
Major properties across the capital are preparing to welcome the visiting delegations. The LaLiT New Delhi is among the hotels expecting to host international delegations from multiple countries. General manager Vishal Sharma said delegations from South Africa, Burundi and the UAE, among other countries, are expected to stay at the property, adding to the mix of international guests during the summit. He said demand for rooms has risen extraordinarily because of the BRICS Summit, with rooms now going for roughly 30 percent above their normal tariff. Overall, the summit has delivered a major boost to Delhi's hotel business, even as the crunch in available rooms has made a stay in the capital costlier and far harder to arrange for ordinary travellers.
