HOTELS ACROSS DUBLIN could be hit with heavy losses if attempts at stopping the Garth Brooks concerts by residents’ umbrella group The Croke Park Streets Committee are successful.
The concerts, which will take place from 25 to 29 July, have led to a spike in business for hotels across the city. Hotel prices during the run have increased in anticipation of the concerts, with many booked to capacity.
For example, the price of a standard double room in The Belvedere Hotel, located on Denmark Street, has seen a 120% increase from €419 to €928, compared to an identical period earlier in the July. The cost to stay in a similar room in The Skylon Hotel has increased 81% from €474 to €860 for the four nights.
At the upper end of the market, booking a deluxe room in the city centre Shelbourne Hotel for the run of the concerts would now cost €2,650. A stay for the same period earlier in the month would cost €1,120.
Cassidy’s Hotel and The Maples House Hotel, both situated close to Croke Park, are also booked out for the run of dates.
Under regulation put in place by Fáilte Ireland, hotels are required to set maximum and minimum prices for rooms, a notice of which should be displayed prominently within the hotel.
Yesterday, residents who are furious over an unprecedented eight concerts happening at Croke Park this year, said that they are looking at moving for an injunction on the Garth gigs.
Louise Tolerton, a spokesperson for Fáilte Ireland said: “From a tourism point of view we’d hope that they go ahead: it would provide a massive boost for the city. It would bring in visitors from Northern Ireland and across the UK and we’d hope it would put Dublin in the limelight for a few days.”
On the potential cancellation of the concerts she said:
It will be down to individual hotels in terms of their cancellation policy but obviously an event of that scale [being cancelled] would have an impact, so we’d hope that it’ll all go ahead.
Manager of The Maples House Hotel, Liam Finegan said, “We’re expecting to be booked out during the concert, like any hotel when it gets busier prices go up…. we’re five minutes from the ground so we’re getting a lot of business.”
On the potential cancellation of the concerts he said, “if the concerts were cancelled there’d be all the cancellations coming in and we’d have to deal with that then”.
The Croke Park Hotel was unable to give out the cost of rooms for the period as they are fully booked. Martha Kavanagh, a spokesperson for The Croke Park Hotel said, “The Croke Park Hotel is heavily booked for the dates 25 to 29 July, which is a particularly busy period” but did not wish to comment “on what may or may not happen in relation to the licence arrangements for the events as this is a matter for the organisers.”
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