Cheapest cities for 5-star hotels: 102 Global destinations by price in 2022

Emirates Palace Hotel Abu Dhabi HDRAre you a budget traveler who has wondered where in the world you’d actually be able to afford a 5-star hotel room? You are not alone. Those of us who prefer to (or must) sleep cheap can easily get tired of tiny rooms with few frills, and we dream of what it would be like to be staying in that swanky 5-star with the perfect location.

Well, wonder no more, because we’ve checked prices in 102 of the most popular tourist cities and destinations around the world to find the cheapest 5-star hotel rates. There are some encouraging results, but of course it’s a complicated situation.

You can’t get a room at the Four Seasons (city name) or the InterContinental (city name) for a budget price anywhere in the world, unfortunately. But you can actually find luxurious hotels at affordable rates in different cities, especially if you go in the low season. As you’ll see below, the cheapest 5-star resorts in the world can be found in Bali, as long as you go outside of the December through February high season, but even then they are good value.

No international standard for “5-star”

Carlton Hotel CannesIt must be said now that only parts of Europe are actively attempting to standardize the definition of hotel stars, and any international standard is still a long way off. In general, it’s the hotels themselves that pick the star rating, and there’s certainly a wide range that claim to be 5 stars.

The good news on this subject is that thanks to the new prominence of guest reviews (AKA TripAdvisor), it’s much harder for hotels to profit by grossly misrepresenting their facilities. We’ve clearly seen expectations play a huge part in post-stay ratings by guests, so any hotel that racks up a large number of 1-star ‘THIS IS NOT A 5-STAR HOTEL!!!’ reviews, won’t be able to carry on like that for long, and they were excluded from the data below as well.

How we made this list of 5-star hotel prices

With different high, shoulder, and low seasons around the world, it’s impossible to rank all cities on one list that works the whole year round, so to compromise we checked prices for one night – Thursday, March 3, 2022 – for all of the cities below using the metasearch site priceline.com.

For many cities there was one or more self-reported 5-star hotels that were cheapest that also have an unusually low average on TripAdvisor average scores, so these were thrown out and the cheapest 5-star hotel with at least 4 (out of 5) TripAdvisor guest stars was used instead.

The price ranges below represent:

  • Hotels reporting 5-stars in systems used by priceline.com
  • Hotels with a minimum 4 out of 5 in TripAdvisor guest ratings
  • The quoted price including all taxes and fees
  • ‘Airport’ hotels were also excluded from the ranges


Note: This article was originally written in 2014 and has been fully updated in 2022.

Cheapest cities for 5-star hotels in the world

Prices in US dollars as of late December, 2021 for mid March stays

(Cheapest 5-star room – Cheapest room at most expensive 5-star – city – # of hotels)

  1. US$7 – US$1,213 – Kuta, Bali, Indonesia (149)
  2. $13 – $860 – Bangkok, Thailand (114)
  3. $14 – $297 – Chiang Mai, Thailand (36)
  4. $14 – $363 – Phnom Penh,Cambodia (15)
  5. $20 – $968 – New Delhi, India (75)
  6. $21 – $250 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (75)
  7. $22 – $187 – Hanoi, Vietnam (29)
  8. $22 – $305 – Kiev, Ukraine (17)
  9. $23 – $1,543 – Phuket, Tailand (126)
  10. $23 – $649 – Mexico City, Mexico (23)
  11. $24 – $321 – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (44)
  12. $24 – $747 – Cape Town, South Africa (85)
  13. $25 – $144 – Siem Reap, Cambodia (62)
  14. $25 – $323 – St. Petersburg, Russia (27)
  15. $26 – $391 – Goa, India (33)
  16. $28 – $2,009 – Istanbul, Turkey (217)
  17. $29 – $213 – Nairobi, Kenya (19)
  18. $30 – $1,336 – Marrakech, Morocco (72)
  19. $41 – $513 – Moscow, Russia (49)
  20. $42 – $400 – Cairo, Egypt (46)
  21. $42 – $255 – Auckland, New Zealand (26)
  22. $42 – $942 – Sydney, Australia (57)
  23. $47 – $336 – Luang Prabang, Laos (6)
  24. $49 – $216 – Krakow, Poland (21)
  25. $50 – $665 – Buenos Aires, Argentina (22)
  26. $51 – $540 – Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (65)
  27. $51 – $756 – Macau, China (30)
  28. $53 – $354 – Manila, Philippines (31)
  29. $53 – $224 – Dubrovnik, Croatia (17)
  30. $55 – $235 – Beirut, Lebanon (35)
  31. $57 – $500 – Melbourne, Australia (55)
  32. $59 – $312 – Mumbai, India (34)
  33. $60 – $139 – Sofia, Bulgaria (18)
  34. $61 – $452 – Budapest, Hungary (20)
  35. $62 – $754 – Shanghai, China (91)
  36. $62 – $496 – Taipei,Taiwan (18)
  37. $66 – $669 – Edinburgh, Scotland (19)
  38. $67 – $440 – Athens, Greece (46)
  39. $70 – $693 – Tokyo, Japan (41)
  40. $74 – $151 – Zagreb, Croatia (7)
  41. $75 – $156 – Caracas, Venezuela (5)
  42. $77 – $525 – Hong Kong, China (31)
  43. $77 – $243 – Warsaw, Poland (18)
  44. $78 – $179 – Panama City, Panama (14)
  45. $79 – $298 – Fes, Morocco (7)
  46. $80 – $400 – Vientiane, Laos (7)
  47. $82 – $1,005 Rome, Italy (63)
  48. $85 – $581 – Beijing, China (71)
  49. $85 – $445 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (16)
  50. $86 – $1,532 – Cancun, Mexico (65)
  51. $89 – $204 – Riga, Latvia (10)
  52. $90 – $167 – Bucharest, Romania (11)
  53. $92 – $1,441 – Dubai, United Arab Emirates (226)
  54. $92 – $402 – Naples, Italy (7)
  55. $94 – $344 – Quito, Ecuador (13)
  56. $96 – $281 – Kathmandu, Nepal (11)
  57. $96 – $238 – Amman, Jordan (26)
  58. $96 – $649 – Lisbon, Portugal (77)
  59. $100 – $682 – Madrid, Spain (45)
  60. $104 – $423 – Berlin, Germany (35)
  61. $109 – $453 – Seoul, South Korea (35)
  62. $110 – $703 – Vienna, Austria (32)
  63. $111 – $275 – Belgrade, Serbia (6)
  64. $113 – $157 – Bratislava, Slovakia (7)
  65. $124 – $308 – Brussels, Belgium (13)
  66. $126 – $799 – Las Vegas, USA (33)
  67. $130 – $130 – Montevideo, Uruguay (1)
  68. $138 – $381 – Hamburg, Germany (21)
  69. $138 – $915 – Los Angeles, USA (32)
  70. $144 – $1,040 – London, England (160)
  71. $145 – $220 – Tallinn, Estonia (6)
  72. $146 – $800 – Munich, Germany (16)
  73. $147 – $259 – Helsinki, Finland (7)
  74. $147 – $1,694 – Florence, Italy (26)
  75. $151 – $546 – Copenhagen, Denmark (11)
  76. $153 – $636 – Singapore, Singapore (50)
  77. $157 – $375 – Lima. Peru (9)
  78. $157 – $1,139 – Milan,Italy (27)
  79. $164 – $764 – Barcelona, Spain (37)
  80. $167 – $885 – Amsterdam, Netherlands (31)
  81. $171 – $425 – Oslo, Norway (4)
  82. $171 – $419 – Dublin, Ireland (16)
  83. $173 – $297 – Nice, France (8)
  84. $180 – $1,545 – Paris, France (109)
  85. $184 – $389 – Stockholm, Sweden (8)
  86. $185 – $185 – Prague, Czech Republic (1)
  87. $189 – $806 – Tel Aviv, Israael (14)
  88. $191 – $1,375 – Zurich, Switzerland (13)
  89. $194 – $236 – Dakar, Senegal (3)
  90. $197 – $374 – Vancouver, Canada (10)
  91. $199 – $699 – New Orleans, USA (5)
  92. $207 – $245 – Santiago, Chile (7)
  93. $242 – $340 – Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (4)
  94. $269 – $2,015 – New York City, USA (52)
  95. $278 – $875 – Washington DC, USA (19)
  96. $296 – $418 – Montreal Canada (7)
  97. $301 – $725 – Chicago, USA (9)
  98. $335 – $427 – Venice, Italy (2)
  99. $348 – $600 – Toronto, Canada (6)
  100. $351 – $766 – San Francisco, USA (10)
  101. $399 – $799 – Honolulu, USA (10)
  102. $445 – $2,155 – Miami Beach, USA (28)

Interesting observations on the above list

The “5-star” hotel in Bali for US$7 actually gets lots of great reviews in spite of having a very remote location. Yes, it’s a private room at a hotel called Summer Homestay and it single-handedly shows that you shouldn’t really trust hotel star ratings in some parts of the world.

That said, Bali continues as an amazing bargain for those who can get there as the pandemic rolls on.

India in particular, is known for lower hotel standards than are found in most of Asia, so even a “5-star” hotel with good guest reviews in Goa would probably have to call itself 4-stars or even 3-stars most anywhere else, at least those on the bottom of the price range.

The best bargains of all might be in the gambling destinations, with Las Vegas (at US$126) far cheaper than most of the other US cities on the list, and Macau (at US$51) near the very top. It’s obvious that casino hotels are confident that they can make up revenue in other ways, so non-gamblers (and winners!) benefit.

On average, US hotels are similar prices to European hotels, so it’s a bit surprising seeing US cities dominating the pricey end of the 5-star hotel list. In other words, even with no recognized standard, it seems that the self-reporting system in the US works well in keeping undeserving hotels from advertising above their true rank.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All Comments

  1. Martin says:

    Roger, in the case of Buenos Aires, it’s taking the oficial exchange rate (that nobody uses). Using the “real” exchange rate, it cuts the cost in half, making Buenos Aires most likely top 3 of the list.

  2. Benjamin says:

    This is wrong, you can get hotels for 80 USD in Santiago, Chile in Las Condes which is an upper-class neighbor

    1. Roger Wade says:

      Benjamin,

      Thank you for the helpful comment. This list is about 5-star hotels and we tried to keep it to actual 5-star hotels rather than hotels that just call themselves that rating and get rotten reviews. -Roger

  3. Hasan says:

    You omitted many Turkish cities. Antalya has the most fascinating five star hotels in the world at a very low price. There are hundreds of 5 star hotels under100$.

    1. Roger Wade says:

      Hasan,

      You are right about that, although I lived for more than a year in Turkey after I first wrote this and have included Antalya in many articles since then. Thanks for the comment. -Roger

  4. Wesley says:

    Hello guys

    I can tell you from experience

    Egypt has probably the most cheap 5 star hotels. Hurghada, Sharm-El-Sheikh.

    Can go from 30 euro for a night and these hotels are HUGE like villages some have over 20 swimming pools.

  5. JAYANT BASU says:

    Roger , you are absolutely right. I am an indian and travel a lot to South east asia. your findings are true. Most of the indian 5 star hotel lacks the luxury we get in other 5 star hotels in asia. the rreal 5 star hotels of India are really expensive

  6. eh says:

    I like your list. However, i think you are wrong about the Indian resorts not being 5 star. I stayed at one in Goa and it was much better than a few others I stayed at.
    You get a lot more people to wait on you, you can request a person to carry your bags, a person to clean your hotel room 2 times a day, there was never any wait at a resteraunt etc.

    1. Roger Wade says:

      eh,

      I should not have said that all of India’s 5-star resorts are below global standards, but I stand by the assertion that the typical 5-star standard in India is lower than in most of the world. The room rate is an easy indicator because the truly 5-star places will have rates of at least US$250 per night and up, while anything closer to US$100 per night is not going to have the luxuries and services you get at, say, a Four Seasons. Thanks for the comment. -Roger