Eurovision fans in Liverpool have been going wild as it was announced that the city would play host to the song contest next year.
The news was broken live on The One Show on Friday evening by Graham Norton, with Liverpool beating Glasgow as the winning UK city after this year’s champions Ukraine were unable to accept the hosting position. As the runners-up thanks to Sam Ryder’s hit Space Man, Eurovision will now take place in the UK at the Liverpool Arena on Saturday 13 May.
As preparations get under way to welcome thousands of visitors to Liverpool, the win has already had a huge impact. Hotels across the city sold out within minutes of the announcement, including all Premier Inns and Travelodge hotels, the Liverpool Echo reports .
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As of Saturday morning, just twelve hours after the announcement, 99% of hotels on travel website Booking.com were sold out in Liverpool city centre for the weekend of May 13 and 14. There were just two hotels left which had space - both charging upwards of an eye-watering £4,000 for a one-night apartment stay.
Both hotels are currently charging as little as between £90 and £144 per night for a stay this October. This means that the most die-hard - and loaded - Eurovision fans could be forking out 45 times the usual price if they hope to visit the city for the contest.
Over on Trivago, there were just eight places left with availability for Eurovision weekend as of Saturday morning. Prices started at a more reasonable £167, but quickly shot up in excess of £500 - with just half of the hotels offering a one-night stay for less than £1,000.
Fans have been frantically booking accommodation despite the fact that tickets for Eurovision are yet to go on sale. Eurovision advises people to sign up to the official Eurovision Song Contest newsletter and subscribe to its YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook channels, to be the first to find out how to secure tickets for next year’s contest.
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