Nothing for the maid to clean here — too many hotel rooms have stayed empty the past quarter, puttling a pinch on Latvian hotel profits on top a value-added tax increase implemented at the beginning of the year as part of the government's anti-crisis plan.

RIGA — Latvia’s late summer and autumn were much quieter this year in hotels and other accommodation establishments, new statistics from the Central Statistics Bureau show.

Year-on-year statistics show occupancy rates for the third quarter of this year down 31 percent across the board, with the amount of foreign visitors plummeting 24 percent.

The greatest drops in foreign guests were seen in visitors from Great Britain and Lithuania by 41.5 percent and 39.7 percent respectively.

The statistics showed that foreigners are continuing to visit Riga most, while hotels in other parts of the country were sustained by local tourism.

Not only were room occupancy rates going down, but the amount of beds being used was declining. An 8 percent drop in the amount of beds used was noted leaving 32,800 beds across the country unused during the period.

Germans Lithuanians and Russians were the most numerous foreign visitors to Latvia during the three-month period.

Over the period, room prices continued to grow with the consumer price index, increasing every month during the period by 9.1, 7.9 and 6.7 percent per month.