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HOTEL prices, just like houses and shares, are falling. The average room this year cost less than during 2008 in ten of the 12 most expensive cities surveyed by Hogg Robinson Group, a British corporate-travel firm. Abu Dhabi and Bangalore have so far resisted the downwards trend, though by wildly differing degrees. As the global economy worsens, the decline in prices is gathering momentum, with rates falling faster in February than in January. Last month in New York, Dubai and Zurich, prices were over 20% cheaper than a year earlier.