Taylor Swift fans who thought they had secured accommodation in Dublin at comparatively reasonable rates by acting swiftly once dates for her concerts next year were announced have been left fuming after bookings were abruptly cancelled by the Radisson Blu Hotel over the weekend.
The singer is due to perform in the Avivia Stadium on June 28th and 29th, 2024 and even though tickets will not go on sale until later this month, such is her popularity that as soon as the dates were confirmed, fans went online in search of hotel rooms.
They did well to act fast as accommodation quickly sold out and of just 38 properties with rooms available on Monday morning in Dublin on June 28th next year, the cheapest was priced at €348, with the vast majority costing more than €400.
Aoife Cheung had booked a room in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel on Golden Lane within five minutes of Swift announcing her tour on Instagram and had agreed a price of €252. “It isn’t cheap to begin with but seems normal as prices go for Dublin these days,” she said.
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“All was confirmed until I received a message yesterday from Booking.com to say that the room has been cancelled. When I asked why, they said they had overbooked and would pay €75 for the difference of a different hotel after I’ve stayed there and produce an invoice to them.”
She pointed out that there was “no hotel that is that price at the moment with the same standard and facilities as the one I had booked”.
Jenny Wren describes herself as “a huge fan” and hopes to buy tickets for herself, her two daughters and one of their friends.
“When she announced dates I immediately went online and booked Radisson Blu Royal Hotel for Friday 28th June to Saturday 29th and secured a family room for €477,” she said. “By the time I went to book the Saturday night prices had shot up.”
She said that “like many other fans this week I’ve been mentally preparing for the ticket sale week after the fiasco that happened with Ticketmaster in the US when her tickets went on sale”.
The tickets for the American leg of Swift’s tour sold out in pre-sale even before they went on general release.
“I was at least reassured I had accommodation booked and not at the extortionate rate the media were reporting,” Ms Wren said. “Imagine my dismay yesterday to receive an email from booking.com telling me that Radisson Blu were no longer in a position to honour the booking and it would be cancelled at no cost to me. They instead offered me a family room in accommodation in Swords 13km away. I was livid, to put it mildly. It’s absolutely disgraceful that the Radisson can do this.”
Rachel Reynolds had booked the Radisson “within about two minutes of Taylor announcing the Dublin dates. Obviously I was quick and hotels had not had a chance to up their prices. I went on to Booking.com to see what I could find and found the Raddison Blu in Golden Lane for €265 so I booked it.”
She said that on Sunday she received an email to say the booking “was cancelled for internal reasons and I could click a link for alternative accommodation. The alternative accommodation is 14km away from city centre.”
She said the booking “was accepted and confirmed and when I go onto the hotels own website now it says no rooms available”.
In a statement issued to The Irish Times, the hotel said it was due to an error.
“On the 20th of June 2023, our hotel bedroom booking system experienced an operational system error which resulted in a significant overbooking of bedrooms for the 28th and 29th of June 2024,” a spokeswoman said.
“Hotel management, together with our booking system service provider, are currently urgently investigating the reasons why this may have occurred. In the meantime, and pending the result of our ongoing investigations, we express our deep regret at this occurrence and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
“The third-party booking platform provider has indicated to us directly that their customer service team will arrange to handle all booking cancellations associated with this overbooking incident in a prompt manner.”
There has been criticism of Dublin hotels for increasing their prices to coincide with Swift ‘s arrival in the city.
In the Dáil last week independent TD Thomas Pringle said he had looked at prices on booking.com and that in recent days there has been “rampant price gouging” from Dublin hotels, with some raising the price of a room €359 to €999 for the night of the concert, “and this is before tickets have even been released”.
Mr Pringle added that it was not just hotels who were guilty of price gouging and that one landlord was charging €20,000 for a two-bedroom apartment for the same weekend.
Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe, who saw Swift perform the last time she was in Dublin, said recently that he took “pretty seriously the need for the hospitality sector to do the right thing” by her fans, adding that he had “not held back in the past from behaviour that I’ve seen in the hospitality sector, at a time when we’re trying to get the sector back on its own two feet again”.
