A trip to the Ukraine to support their team at Euro 2012 is going to hit Englanders’ wallets hard. And it’s not tickets to the games, which are still reasonably priced, that will be their financial undoing. Rather, it’s the cost of a hotel room, which has risen substantially in anticipation of the June competition dates. This is the result CheapHotels.org has compiled after comparing available hotel rooms for the group games of the Three Lions.
Games between France and the Ukraine, which are being hosted by Donetsk, correspond with the hardest-to-come-by hotel rooms. In response to heated demand, the 4-star Shakhtar Plaza in the heart of the action has hiked its rates 400% to GBP 500 per night in comparison to its regular GBP 100 rates.
Bargain hunters are particularly in for some disappointment. All remaining rooms in the Ukrainian host city are going for more than GBP 300. In fact, the lowest price they’ll find for an accommodation is at the budget Agat Hotel. This prime locale near the Euro 2012 stadium is charging GBP 296 more than its usual GBP 39, a hike that equates to a 758% increase.
The Agat Hotel, however, isn’t the Games’ biggest price-gouging offender. The second game against Sweden in Kiev will take matters to an even greater extreme as rooms become few and far between. The Hostel Downtown is a good case in point. Its typical GBP 59 rooms have soared to GBP 847 per night, representing a 1335% price elevation. On the upside, travelers who are willing to stay in Kiev’s outer fringe can snag some rooms for under GBP 100.
Waiting until the last minute may be the name of the savings game. CheapHotels.org has it on good authority from the UEFA’s official tour agency that many of the rooms that had been reserved by the association are no longer needed and will be released to the public at the end of April.
For more information about this survey, visit http://www.cheaphotels.org/press/euro-2012.html
