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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
World
Christopher Megrath

Woman books hotels in seven cities without paying a penny

A die-hard Eurovision fan found a fool-safe method to make sure she had accommodation for the 2023 contest.

The biggest music experience in Europe will land in Liverpool in May but fans have been scrambling for months to ensure they are prepared for tickets going on sale and that they have somewhere to rest their heads.

Once Liverpool was announced as the host city, hotel prices skyrocketed with some fans declaring it a "disgrace". Many who make the event an annual celebration on their personal calendar were forced away but one savvy fan managed to bypass the price gouging well before Merseyside knew it was coming.

READ MORE: When to expect Eurovision Song Contest tickets and how much they will cost

During the bidding process, where cities across the United Kingdom put themselves forward to host, Liverpool had to fend off competition from Manchester, Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Leeds. Jenny Shevlin, 30, made sure she was accommodated no matter who it landed on and went out of her way to secure multiple hotels at once.

After a fansite speculated which city had it in the bag, Jenny then made her move. She told The ECHO: "I thought 'I'm just going to pre-book a hotel in every single city for every single weekend in May."

Eurovision fans have paid between £200 to upwards of £1,200 on Liverpool accommodation but the Planning Director still hasn't paid a penny for any six of her hotels.

She added: "I saw a TikTok months ago and it was a woman using Booking.com to book multiple hotels for an event and on there lots of hotels don't take immediate payments.

"Some hotels ask you to pay but for that far in advance, you can make your booking and pay when you arrive. Then, you can cancel anything you want for free at any point up until the day before."

Jenny used the free cancellation policy to scrap the remaining bookings, leaving herself with a cosy accommodation still in place in Liverpool's Leonardo Hotel.

Regardless of whether or not Jenny manages to get tickets to one of the many live shows, she and her partner, Paul, still plan to live it up in one of the region's fan zones. Pier Head will be transformed into the Eurovillage with screens broadcasting the contest to an outside audience.

Jenny said: "I absolutely love Eurovision and I've always said if it was ever here, I would absolutely love to go. I would hate to like be so close and yet not be around the atmosphere, especially with so much additional stuff going on."

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