Hotel gougers accused of cancelling rooms and reselling them for three times the going rate have been slammed by Social Democrats’s TD, Catherine Murphy.
The latest accusations of rip-offs are happening in Dublin the week of eagerly-anticipated Taylor Swift concerts in the Capital.
Social Media was flooded with accounts of hotels telling ‘Swifties’ that their bookings were being cancelled because of over-bookings, but the music fans are sceptical.
One father of a superfan, Niall Healy, booked a room for June 28, 2024 at the hotel for €265 as soon as the concerts were announced, as he plans to bring his daughter to the gig.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift fans accuse Dublin hotels of price gouging after bookings cancelled for 'no reason'
"I booked a room with this hotel through booking.com as soon as I heard the concert was announced," he told our sister publication, Dublin Live.
"My 12-year-old daughter is a fan of Swift and I made a booking on the 20th June for €265 and received confirmation of the same.
"Yesterday evening I was contacted by booking.com via e-mail to inform me my booking was cancelled.
“I contacted the hotel directly via e-mail and their reservation agent basically fobbed me off."
Niall emailed the hotel seeking further explanation for why his booking was cancelled.
In response, the hotel said a "system error" affected over 800 bookings.
They denied that the issue was due to cost or revenue and said it was a "serious overbooking situation".
Ms Murphy believes that such sharp practice could cause real reputational damage to the Irish tourism industry.
The Kildare TD said: “This issue was raised at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on June 22nd.
“Officials from the Department of tourism, culture and the arts said that they are ‘acutely aware of this issue and we have raised it with the industry,’ before going on further to say that the Ministers would be meeting with the industry the following week - yet here we are with what appears to be nothing other than grabbing at the pockets of people that already pay substantial sums for event tickets and also require hotel rooms.
“There is a real reputational risk here for Ireland as a destination, both Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland really need to grips with this.
“And as for the Ministers, what commitments, if any, did they get from the sector??”
