Eurovision organisers slam short-let landlords for “profiteering”

Organisers of next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool are telling fans and suppliers not to book short let accommodation at inflated prices.

Instead the organisers are considering other options including accommodation on cruise ships.

The BBC reports that in the days since Friday’s announcement that Liverpool would host the extravaganza next May, short lets have been advertised at between £450 and £8,000 a night over the period of the contest.

On the night of the 13 May Eurovision final rooms are now priced at £1,000 on the Booking.com website, and one full house is priced at £8,000.

Chris Brown, director of Marketing Liverpool, is quoted as saying organisers were "naturally disappointed" that some had "decided to try to profiteer" from Liverpool's staging of the event.

"We would certainly say to anybody that received those prices not to book them” he says.

Some who had booked accommodation before Friday's announcement - in some cases months before - reportedly have had their reservations cancelled. Their rooms or properties were then relisted at much higher prices.

Some rooms have already been allocated to organisers and broadcasters at rates that were acceptable to Eurovision as part of the bidding process.

Earlier this year the financial website Money claimed some AirBnb landlords were charging people up to 600 per cent more to stay at their properties during major events such as the Glastonbury Festival and the British Grand Prix. 

In recent years there has been growing criticism of Airbnb and other short let platforms, whose hosts took advantage of major events.

This has particularly been the case in Edinburgh, the city with what is believed to be the highest proportion of Airbnbs in the UK, and where in recent years - at least before the pandemic - charges rocketed around the time of the annual summer arts festivals.

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