PHOTO: Hotels like Mandarin Oriental Barcelona are bucking national trends (courtesy Mandarin Oriental)

While average room rates (ARR) have generally been affected by national trends throughout the years, a survey by Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) pointed to “supercities” bucking the trend.

Supercities — or destinations popular for business and leisure visitors — apparently tend to be different from the norm around the world, staying strong even when other locations are struggling around them.

“In our study last year we made reference to ‘supercities’ which had begun to buck certain national trends and forge their own path,” said Stewart Harvey, HRG group commercial director. “We’ve seen this trend continuing to grow, with cities such as Barcelona and Beijing—where exchange rates may not necessarily be working in their favor — retaining strong positive growth, despite external factors, as their popularity as both business and leisure destinations goes from strength to strength.”

The study also spotlighted the top five room rate increases and decreases on the planet.

Munich, Aberdeen, Barcelona, Cape Town, and Tokyo increased their rates the most from last year.

Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Madrid, and Mexico City decreased their rates the most from 2012.

In terms of each global region, Europe and the Americas reportedly have mainly led the charge in ARR recovery, while Asia has experienced a year-to-year decrease. Africa has also experienced a year-to-year decrease since 2011, but the Middle East and West Africa regions have largely boasted increases in ARR the past three years.

Other highlights in the study include:

Moscow is still the top ARR location, despite a slight ARR decrease of 0.78 percent from 2012 to 2013.

Financial capitals have seen stronger increases.

Certain cities such as Cape Town and Tokyo experienced ARR increases because of exchange rate variations and not actual growth.

Some declines in ARR were attributed to the number of beds available.

This is the 21^st year of HRG’s biannual hotel survey.