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If the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, plans to fly down to Paris to congratulate the French President-elect, Mr Francois Hollande, he had better pack a Club sandwich from home to tackle that empty feeling when in the world's most romantic city.
Paris has turned out to be the world's most expensive city for a Club Sandwich, according to a survey by hotel booking site, Hotels.com. Surprisingly, New Delhi has emerged the cheapest in this survey of major tourist destinations and business capitals.
The site has been tracking the price of this classic chicken, bacon, egg, lettuce and mayo sandwich, as a handy indicator of how expensive or inexpensive a city is for travellers.
The Club Sandwich was picked since it is staple in room service and restaurant menus in hotels the world over and is available everywhere, and the product is highly comparable across different cities.
Affordability
So the price of an average Club Sandwich is a good indicator of affordability, says Hotels.Com, one of the top online hotel booking sites in the world.
“The Club Sandwich Index (CSI) will give holiday-makers an indication of the costs associated with their holiday destination, using one of the most common items on any hotel menu around the world as a barometer,” a company statement said.
The CSI average price has been calculated by taking the real prices paid by guests for a Club Sandwich in 30 hotels in the Capital or major city of each country measured.
In all, the Hotels.com survey took Club Sandwich prices from more than 750 hotels across 26 popular tourist countries, spread across five, four and three star categories.
In the French Capital, the CSI showed prices ranged from an atrocious $54.10 (Rs 2,875) for a ‘Club' in a five-star hotel to a relatively cheaper $22.20 (Rs 1,180) in a two-star establishment, with the city-wide cost of a Club averaging $33.10 (Rs 1,759). Travellers with Swiss bank accounts would have found the price of a Club Sandwich in Geneva $32.56 (Rs 1,730) a fleabite. Surprisingly, New York (the Club Sandwich was invented in the US) is fairly steep at $16.93 (Rs 900), while generally expensive London, with an average price of $18.71 (Rs 994), was pretty close to New York, cheaper than other European cities, and Asian metros such as Tokyo and Seoul.
India was the cheapest, with New Delhi averaging a relatively modest $9.57 (Rs 508).
Ms Alison Couper of Hotels.com said, “Many holidaymakers don't always factor the everyday costs of items including food and drink into their decision making process. The Club Sandwich Index is the perfect way for holidaymakers to assess a destination's real cost.”
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