Hotels in Dublin are engaged in “rampant price gouging” on the dates of US pop star Taylor Swift’s concerts, a TD has claimed.
There is not a hotel room available in Dublin for less than €350 on the dates of the Eras tour shows next year, Independent TD Thomas Pringle told the Dáil.
The Donegal representative said he was highlighting the Swift concerts as the star has many young fans who will travel with their parents, as he raised the matter with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during Leaders Questions on Wednesday.
There was huge excitement last week when Swift announced her world tour, which will visit the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on June 28th and 29th, 2024.
Mr Pringle said while many young people are preoccupied with securing tickets for the shows, their parents are anxious about being able to afford accommodation.
He blasted a “disgraceful display of greed”.
“From looking at booking.com this morning, there isn’t a single hotel room available in Dublin for under 350 euro for either of the nights of the Taylor Swift concerts, and they are on next year,” he said.
“As if that isn’t expensive enough, we have in recent days seen rampant price gouging from Dublin hotels, some raising the price of a room from €359 to an incredible €999 for the night of the concert, and this was before the tickets have even been released.
“And it’s not just hotels that are guilty of price gouging – one landlord has a two-bedroom apartment they priced at €20,000 for the same weekend.”
He said the issue is “nothing new or unique” and has happened before with concerts and sporting events, and pressed Mr Varadkar on what he would do about it.
Responding, Mr Varadkar said he has spoken to hoteliers on the matter and said they have their own story to tell.
He said there is a dilemma in that there are not enough hotels in the city of Dublin, but with the ongoing housing crisis they don’t want to see more new hotels being built, but new houses instead.
“I have spoken hoteliers about this. They have their story to tell, and their story to tell us that the coverage in the media has been unfair,” he told TDs.
He said hotels told him that if you try to book a hotel more than a year in advance, you get the “rack rate”, which is “not necessarily the rate that they charge”, adding that they wanted that point to be made.
“I’ve made the point very strongly back to them, and it is that price gouging and taking advantage of people and hiking prices on very popular weekends is bad business. It’s how your business gets a bad reputation, it’s how your city or town gets a bad reputation and it’s how your wider industry gets a bad reputation, and it doesn’t make good business sense in the long term,” he said.
“And we saw that happen before when Dublin in particular but Ireland in general got a reputation for being a very high-cost place to visit, and I hope they’ll take that point on board.”
Mr Pringle blasted a “sad response”.
“Surely the Government has to take some action at some point … the Government can actually prevent it (price gouging) from happening,” he said.
Mr Varadkar hit back, saying Mr Pringle had not suggested any proposals or solutions.
“You’ve been very critical of the Government, of hoteliers, of everyone and of me personally – you haven’t actually put forward a constructive solution. So if you have one, put it forward and we will give it consideration,” he added.
