Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has described as “shocking” the decision of a Dublin hotel to raise the price of a room from €359 to €999 for the nights of the Taylor Swift concerts in Dublin next year.
The price was too high and “not worth it”, he told Newstalk radio.
“We’ve a real problem when you get that sort of pricing – it does a lot of reputational damage to the city and the country.”
Taylor Swift will play to her Irish fans on June 28th and 29th next year in the Aviva Stadium, ending a gap of six years since Swift last performed in Croke Park in 2018.
Demand for tickets and accommodation is likely to be high. Last year Ticketmaster had to cancel the general sale to buy tickets for the US leg of Swift’s tour due to “extraordinarily high demands”.
Mr Ryan said it was difficult for the Government to intervene in cases like this and the VAT rate was not the reason why prices were high, he said. Hotel prices could not be regulated or restricted and changing the VAT level would not make a difference.
“If someone wants to sell at that price, there’s not an easy way you can come in and say, ‘You can’t.’ But I think for the industry, it’s a real problem because very quickly then you get a reputation of being extortionate and then you lose your business.
“So, I think for the tourism industry itself, I think we have to think how we avoid that.”
Responding to the reports of price hikes, a spokesperson from the Irish Hotels Federation said the "vast majority" of hotels do not make rooms available online any earlier than one year out.
"This means that there is currently almost no hotel availability through online booking engines given that the dates for the concerts are over a year away," they said.
"For many hotels, even shorter lead in times apply for listing rooms through online booking engines. This means that people looking to book at this stage should consider contacting hotels directly either through their own websites or by phone to enquire about rates and get the best value."
The European leg of the singer's Eras Tour kicks off in Paris on May 9th and wraps up with shows in London ending on August 17th.
It is Swift’s first international concert tour since 2018 and follows on from the North American leg, where nearly every show was a sell-out.
