Hotel rooms are cheaper in some places this year than they have been for a while. It’s due to the recession of course. (Nothing to do with some hotel prices being over the top anyway). So this year prices in London have been quite a bit lower whilst in Edinburgh they have stayed about the same. Prices in Spain have dropped a bit but gossip says they will fall more before they rise again.
In Dubai where the recession has bitten harder than in a number of places and where housing prices have halved in some cases, hotels face a similar pricing issue. One five star hotel, the Monarch, was a bit reluctant to keep on dropping prices as its competitors did so it has turned the issue on its head. This month they will start auctioning rooms off. There will be base price (just as there is on e-bay) and people can bid up the price of the room they want for that particular day, week or whatever. So you can bid for the Monarch Suite (stayed in by Paris Hilton if that appeals to you) and you will probably pay well below the 49,000 dirhams it normally costs per night. (about £8,200 per night).
Hotels there are only 60-65% full per night, so if you fancy Dubai, try haggling for a better room rate or try the auction system at the Monarch.