Budget travellers squeezed in Macau

Budget travellers may find once-sleepy Macau offering them fewer options as most hotel rooms in the "Las Vegas of the East" are now supplied by five-star hotels.

According to the Macau Statistics and Census Service, about 26,000 rooms were offered by 67 hotels and 33 guesthouses at the end of September. Five-star hotels accounted for 17,000 - about 64 per cent of the total.

Figures from the Macau Hotel Association show that the average room rate of a five-star hotel is about 1,600 patacas.

Domingo Lamarre, 24, a Canadian exchange student at City University who travelled to Macau in September, said he regarded a reasonable price for a room sleeping four as C$80 to C$100, or 640 to 800 patacas.

Chen Jiexian, 22, a student from Guangzhou, said she did not stay overnight in Macau because rooms were too expensive.

"There are so few hostels in Macau. They are troublesome [to apply for] and are far away [from the city centre]."

There are only two youth hostels providing 140 beds in Macau, both of them on the outermost island of Coloane, with prices ranging from 100 to 220 patacas for non-locals.