TripAdvisor, today launched the third edition of its annual TripIndex, a travel price index of major Indian metropolitan cities. The index helps travellers determine the cost for an evening out for two people in these destinations. TripIndex tracks the cost for two travellers for one night’s accommodation, a pre-meal drink, dinner and a taxi ride in each city*.

‘City of Joy’ Kolkata takes the top spot from Mumbai as the most expensive city this year with a total TripIndex cost of Rs. 10,115, albeit by a marginal lead. Ahmedabad emerges as the most budget-friendly metro city, with a total TripIndex cost of Rs. 6,406. A night out for two in Kolkata will be about one-and-half times more than Ahmedabad.

The Pocket Friendly and the Pricey

• Hotel: With square feet at a premium in horizontally challenged Mumbai, it’s no wonder that the city has the highest average hotel room cost of Rs. 7,580. Hotels in Pune are the cheapest to stay with an average hotel room cost of Rs. 5,230, making Mumbai accommodation over 1.4 times the cost in Pune.  
• Taxi Ride: A two kilometre return taxi ride in Chennai can set you back by Rs. 230 while the same distance in Mumbai is a meagre Rs. 84.
• Dinner: Travellers need to dish out 4.5 times the money for a dinner for two in New Delhi (Rs. 2,767) as against a meal in Ahmedabad (Rs. 593). Even if we compare with Chennai – the city with the cheapest dinner cost for a comparable meal (where an alcoholic beverage cost is included in the meal) -- Delhi’s TripIndex cost is still 75% more expensive than the southern capital city.
• Cocktail: Hyderabad is the most expensive city to grab a beer for two with a cost of Rs. 380, compared to Delhi where a couple of brewskis cost you Rs. 310, the cheapest across all metros. So think twice before you raise a cold one in Hyderabad! 

2012 vs. 2013 

• Hotel room rate prices have declined across the board in all cities with an average 17% drop from last year. Chennai, which had the most expensive hotel room last year, saw the biggest fall of 27% in room rate this year. Mumbai, with the most expensive hotel room night this year at Rs. 7,580 saw the least decrease in cost of only 5% from TripIndex 2012 cost of Rs. 8015. Chennai seems to be most expensive for a taxi ride, for two years in a row -- for a two-kilometre taxi ride (round trip) one has to shell out Rs. 230 which was Rs. 210 last year.
• The TripIndex 2013 total costs have shown a decline across all cities with Chennai seeing the highest percentage of fall of 35% from Rs. 12,530 last year to Rs. 8,122 this year.
• This year, East leads as the most expensive region compared to the South last year with average TripIndex cost of (Rs. 10,115), closely followed by North (Rs. 9,728), South (Rs. 8,449) and West (RS. 8,076). As for the hotel prices, the highest average hotel room rates are also in the East (Rs. 7,146), followed by North (Rs. 6,551), West (Rs. 6,104) and South (Rs. 5,780).

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