London hotels are seeking to capitalise on the excitement around King Charles’ Coronation weekend by ramping up room prices by a mind-boggling 120 percent, it has been revealed. Thousands of Britons and foreign tourists are expected to flock to the capital to celebrate a royal event that has not been commemorated in more than 70 years. While the event is expected to be shorter and smaller than Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953, some hotels are reportedly fully booked for the royal event.
Some hotel owners have hiked up room prices by a whopping 120 percent above the average rate in anticipation of a massive turnout, an analysis by The i has found.
Dozens of low-cost hotels in a 15-mile radius of Westminster Abbey, including Premier Inn and Travelodge, are sold out on Friday and Saturday due to a large number of visitors and high demand for accommodation.
Hotels have got inspired by Uber’s business model in recent years, hiking up prices when demand is high. This means that travellers looking for a place to stay in London should prepare for exorbitant prices.
Surge pricing is a well-known pricing mechanism employed by Uber and many event organisers selling tickets for well-known performances, in which prices are momentarily raised in response to rising consumer demand.
The publication compared the costs of a two-night stay at a number of well-known hotels near Westminster Abbey for the weekends of May 5 and 6, as well as the weekends immediately before and after these dates, and discovered that they had all considerably increased their prices for the Coronation.
For example, a double room at the Hilton Westminster London Curio Collection hotel will cost £577 for two nights on the weekend before the Coronation.
During the Coronation weekend, the hotel is charging more than double that amount – £1,273 – for identical accommodation. This represents a £696 difference and a hike of 121 percent.
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