New figures from the Benchmarking Alliance show that hotels in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger and Tromsø have increased massively compared to before the outbreak of the pandemic, financial newspaper Dagens Næringlsiv (DN) reports.

Hotel prices in Oslo rose the sharpest, increasing by 27.5 percent over the past few years. Meanwhile, the cost of a room in all five cities measured had increased by over 20 percent.

Tromsø, a popular destination for dog sledging and the Northern Lights, is the most expensive place to book a room. Booking a hotel with breakfast costs about 2,100 kroner, including VAT, a night.

A hotel stay in Oslo costs an average of 1,232 kroner per night without breakfast or a 12 percent VAT charge. Rooms in Stavanger cost 1,207 kroner, while a bed in Trondheim was slightly cheaper at 1,183 kroner per night.

The higher costs come despite the fact that the occupancy rate, the number of booked rooms in hotels, has fallen since 2020. The only city to see increased demand in hotel stays was Bergen, which was also the cheapest out of Norway’s big cities to book a hotel room in. A room in Bergen costs 1,076 kroner a night on average.

“Prices are on the rise, and tourism is on the way back. And in the exclusive segment, we have fantastic growth. In particular, we see that the increase from the American market, helped by a very strong dollar, adds extra fuel to the fire. The weak Norwegian krone means that the exclusive products Norway has to offer to appear reasonable compared to other countries where price increases have been much higher. So even though hotel prices have increased quite a bit in Norway, there are many indications that we have even more to go on in terms of prices,” Kjetil Smørås who owns the De Bergenske hotel chain, which includes hotels such as Bergen Børs, Zander K and Grand Hotel Terminus, told DN.

Kristin Krohn Devold, managing director of the largest employer organisation for the hotel and tourism sector, NHO Reiseliv, said that the increased prices didn’t translate to higher profits. Instead, hotels were increasing prices to keep up with increased costs, he argued.