15 December 2009

South Africa World Cup hotels ready to cash in

LONDON - Visitors to South Africa during the World Cup next June could have to pay five times the usual rate for a hotel room.

Hoteliers, official accommodation agents and tour operators are all taking advantage of the limited availability during the five-week tournament, a report in the Telegraph.co.uk claims.

Research this week on Hotels.com UK website, showed that the four-star, centrally located Cape Town Lodge Hotel, which from May 28 to June 5 charges Ã£68 per room per night, is raising its rate on June 11, when the tournament gets under way, to Ã£395.

That is a rise of 480 per cent and makes its rate Ã£120 more than the Ritz in London charges for a double room during the same period, says the Telegraph.

Room rates at the five-star Compass House Boutique Villa in Bantry Bay, Cape Town, will rise from Ã£58 per night to Ã£312 Ã¢â¬' an increase of 438 per cent.

Rates for private villas have also risen sharply. One property in the exclusive Cape Town suburb of Bantry Bay was being offered for Ã£30,000 a night Ã¢â¬' five times its normal high-season rate of Ã£6,000 a night.

Hotel rates always rise during big sporting events: during the Olympic Games in Athens (2004) and Sydney (2000) they were three times the usual level.

But the increases in South Africa almost match those made during the Beijing Olympics, when hoteliers were accused of exploitation.

Although prices initially increased seven-fold, they fell sharply in the run-up to the Games because tourists were failing to book.

About 25,000 England supporters and thousands from Australia and New Zealand are expected to be among the 500,000 visiting South Africa next June, but the tourist board is banking on up to 300,000 extra visitors arriving in the five years after the tournament as more money is invested in tourism; 34 hotels are due to open in Cape Town alone in the next few years.

Calvyn Gilfellan, a tourism official based in Cape Town, said that to indulge in profiteering during the World Cup would be "like killing the goose that laid the golden egg".

Delia Fischer, a spokeswoman for Fifa, has admitted that Match, the official accommodation agent, is adding commissions of up to 30 per cent on all bookings, but she blames the rises on increased demand.

"There will be some difference between the prices charged in the normal off-season and what hotels may be charging next June," she said. "All the Match-approved hotels will be charging their high-season rates and a 30 per cent commission is quite standard."

Source: Telegraph.co.uk