Euro 2012 set to flop as hotels charge 13 times normal rate
May 6 2012 by Jeremy Armstrong, The People
Euro 2012 faces being be a massive flop because hotels are ramping up room rates.
The People has discovered they want to charge recession-hit Brits up to 13 TIMES the usual price for a room.
Two of England’s three group matches are in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
The bizarre-looking three-star BonBon Hotel, five miles from the city centre, is raising its £30-a-night charge 13 fold to £1,220.03 for three nights from June 10, the eve of our opening tie against France.
The hotel is 4.5 miles from the Donbass Arena where England also play Ukraine on Tuesday, June 19.
The four-star Shakhtar Plaza, a mile from the stadium, is charging £1,654.92 for two or three nights from June 10. That is £827.46 a night; over TEN TIMES more than its usual nightly rate of £80.
England, under new manager Roy Hodgson, will have only around 3,000 fans at each game in Donetsk after the FA returned over half of its allocation of 7,800 tickets to organisers.
Most fans will fly in and out of the city on the day of the games, paying £695 for a package that includes the flight from the UK, and ticket. Six years ago about 30,000 fans attended our group games at the World Cup in Germany.
David Hancock, a supervisor at London’s Commodore Travel, said: “Some of the prices in the Ukraine are truly shocking. The Shaktar equates to about £825 a night, when it is generally £80 a night.
“There are apartments near the stadium charging £700 a night, and a hotel which is about half an hour out of town which shares its entrance with a strip club asking £250 a night. It is jaw dropping, far worse than the World Cup in South Africa.”
Kevin Miles, international director of the Football Supporters’ Federation, said: “Even fans who regularly travel aren’t bothering.
“The practical difficulties of getting there, travelling between the different venues, the high cost of accommodation and the economic situation have combined to hit ticket sales.
“Overall there will be fewer England fans there than at any Euro tournament in living memory.”
England’s other group match, against Sweden on June 15, is 450 miles from Donetsk in Kyiv. The team is based in Krakow, Poland, and will have a two-hour flight to each match.
Fans travelling from Krakow to the Ukraine would take around 24 hours by road or rail. Trains between the two host countries need to change wheels because of the different gauges on tracks.
Meanwhile hoteliers in Poland, the other nation hosting the tournament, believe thousands of European fans who have bought tickets will not turn up because of the Eurozone crisis.
Teams from Greece, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Russia and the Czech Republic are based in the country.
But hotel owners fear many fans who bought tickets when they had jobs will not travel to see the matches.
The Czechs are laying on trains and flights in and out of the country for their games. Only the Republic of Ireland, based in Sopot on the Baltic coast, will have a huge travelling support, with around 7,000 fans expected, many opting to camp in seaside resorts.
Mr Hancock said: “Fans from Greece, Russia or the Czech Republic will not have money to throw around. If it were not for the Irish fans, it would be a total disaster.”
But Uefa Prersident Michel Platini said stadia were sold out apart from four matches. “It takes some time and has been a bit slow for some matches in Ukraine, including England v France.” he said. “But we have no concerns that the stadia will be full.”
For a free copy of the FSF guide to Euro 2012, go to: http://www.fsf.org.uk/euros