FESTIVAL MADNESS
Mail survey reveals eye-watering accommodation prices in Dublin
CONCERT season is back in full swing for the first time in three years, but music fans travelling to the capital are being hit with eye-watering accommodation prices – including a €10,000 quote for a weekend stay in a two-bedroom apartment.
A survey by the Irish Mail on Sunday found that, on top of some of the steepest ticket prices in Europe, concert goers still seeking accommodation in Dublin will end up paying well above the odds.
A group heading to the threeday Longitude festival at Marlay Park in two weeks will spend over €6,000 if they stay at an AirBnB apartment nearby.
The apartment sleeps six. The host says ‘all basic toiletries’ are included in the price and stresses it is ‘one of the few places in the area with free parking’.
Towards the city centre, the owners of a two-bedroom apartment at Grand Canal Dock are letting the property for €9,335 for three nights. As well as the two
Almost €10,000 for a three-night stay
bedrooms, there is ‘an air mattress in the office area to comfortably sleep six’.
Another city-centre apartment with three double beds in two rooms ‘plus convertible sofa’ could be found for €848 a night. Location looks like the main draw there rather than the lived-in kitchen and bathroom.
Those looking for the budget option may book a bed in a shared dorm in a hostel – around €15-€30 in most European cities – but even that will set back each person around €300 for three nights, which is more than the price of a weekend pass to the festival.
Meanwhile, a family of four going to see Harry Styles on Wednesday can expect to pay over €1,000 for the night away.
The three-star Fitzsimons Hotel in Temple Bar could be booked this week for €852 for two adults and two children. The cheapest ticket for Styles’s Aviva Stadium gig cost €77.50, bringing the total to €1,162 for four, before travel, food and other expenses.
Booking a townhouse in Crumlin on AirBnB for the same night would bring the accommodation cost down to €681 for the night, while another of the few AirBnB options, in nearby Terenure, costs €1,262 per night.
A couple travelling to see the Eagles or Dermot Kennedy on Friday will struggle to find a room at all with most accommodation already snapped up. The only city hotel available in a search this week was the three-star Arlington – at €359 a night for two people.
Alternatively, a modest double room, not a full apartment, was found on AirBnB for €543 a night. Add another hundred to that for two tickets to Kennedy’s concerts, or €140 for two standing tickets to the Eagles.
Next week sees three nights in a row of veteran rock acts at Marlay Park, with the cheapest tickets going for €90-€100.
Green Day are in town on Monday, when a double room in the four-star Morgan is €422.
Guns ‘n’ Roses take the stage on Tuesday, when a stay at the fourstar Riu Plaza The Gresham will cost €339 for two.
And a couple looking to make a night away of the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert the following night will pay €408 for the four-star Spencer.
There is little accommodation for below €240 available and virtually nothing below €200, despite the concerts falling midweek.
Extra tickets were released this week for Garth Brooks’s five Croke Park concerts over two weekends in September. At present, citycentre double rooms are going for €300-€400 for a night, with the two Saturdays most expensive.
At a Dáil joint committee meeting this week, Fianna Fáil Senator Shane Cassells hit out at representatives of the hospitality sector, including the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), over extortionate room rates for big events.
Mr Cassells said: ‘What I don’t accept is, if there’s a big game at Croke Park or the Aviva... the exploitation that can happen in terms of rates going exponentially through the roof for hotels. It is fundamentally wrong, and it’s exploiting Irish people.
‘The price of a steak in a restaurant doesn’t go from €25 to €100 the day of an All-Ireland final. It stays at €25, but suddenly we have a sector that thinks: “Well, just because we’ve got X amount of people coming into the city, we can exploit that situation”.’
Representatives from tourism and hotel groups pointed to higher operating costs and supply and demand issues exacerbated by hotels being used for refugees.
IHF chief Tim Fenn said: ‘In April, Dublin had the highest occupancy rate of any city in Europe, at 83.6%. The average daily rate for a room was €154.31, and that’s behind Amsterdam, Rome and London.’
‘It’s exploiting Irish people’