‘Rip-off’ prices will ‘come back to haunt the tourism industry’ in Dublin, says TD

“It’s extortionate, some of the prices hotels are asking for, particularly around the times of concerts like Coldplay and Taylor Swift. The prices are immoral,” he said.

“Hotels in Dublin, prices go jacked up at the time of big events. Profiteering is going on in the hotel industry, it’s outrageous.

“It’s hard to think that people are being ripped off so much. The hotel industry is making an enormous amount of profit. They’ve a lot to answer for.

“Some people don’t have an alternative. If they want to go to a concert, they have to stay if they live outside of Dublin.

“It’ll come back to haunt the tourism industry if people keep getting ripped off. It would turn people off coming to Dublin,” he added.

People Before Profit is demanding a solution to the Ticketmaster issue as “they have cornered large parts of the live music market”.

“Ticketmaster is a monopoly. They make serious money from concerts. The government had legislation a number of years ago in relation to price-gouging, but there needs to be more,” the Dublin Mid-West TD added.

In response, Ticketmaster said: “The artist team (promoter, manager and agent) plan all aspects of a tour.

“This includes which venues to play, when to put tickets on sale, ticket prices and how various presales will run. As the ticketing agent, we implement their decisions.”

The Irish Hotels Federation has also suggested ways to get the cheapest accommodation around the time of concerts.

“The Irish Hotels Federation consistently advocates for competitiveness and value across the industry,” a spokesperson said.

“With regard to supply and demand issues, there are times when Dublin – like cities the world over – experiences significant increases in demand around major events, and this can result in price increases.

“This tends to happen for a limited number of nights during the year. These rates are not reflective of the overall value available in Dublin during the remainder of the year or throughout the country on a given night.

“In relation to the recently announced concert dates, the vast majority of Irish hotels do not make rooms available online any earlier than one year out.

“For many hotels, even shorter lead-in times apply for listing rooms through online booking engines. People looking to book at this stage should consider contacting hotels directly to get the best value.”