Less than a year ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, hotel prices are on the rise, increasing by over three-and-a-half times the typical summer rates. Travelers preparing to visit the French capital during the Olympics are expected to pay around $685 per night for a three-star hotel, a sharp rise compared to the usual July rate of $178, reported Bloomberg citing Google data.
Similarly, four-star hotel booking prices have reached about $953 during the Olympics compared to the regular rate of $266, the report said. It also stated that during the games, luxury consumers are likely to experience more moderate price increases compared to budget-conscious travelers.
Five-star hotels are charging $1,607 per night, in contrast to the typical July rate of $625. This means that for the same price as a room at the five-star Demeure Montaigne with an Eiffel Tower view, you’ll now get a smaller room at the more modest Hotel Mogador, the report said.
A Paris tourism office spokeswoman told Bloomberg that the city is expecting more than 11 million visitors during the Olympics, 3.3 million of whom are traveling from outside the greater Paris region or internationally and would need accommodations. For those arrivals, there are about 280,000 rooms available per day across the greater Paris region.
The heightened demand has also impacted prices on rental platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo. During the Olympics, the average daily rate in Paris stands at $536 before adding the cleaning fees, which is nearly three times the $195 rate observed during the same period in the previous summer, the report further noted citing data from the short-term rental provider AirDNA.
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Despite the event being almost a year away, room reservations are filling up rapidly in Paris. According to data from the tourism research firm MKG, 45 per cent of rooms in Paris are already booked for the duration of the games. This is a significant contrast to the typical scenario where only 3 per cent of rooms are booked a year in advance, the report said.
Additionally, some hotels are adopting a strategy of not listing all their rooms, with the hope of selling them at higher rates as the opening ceremony approaches. This approach is especially likely if they believe that the rates negotiated with Olympic officials years ago, without considering current inflation, put them at a disadvantage, Vanguelis Panayotis, the Chief Executive Officer of MKG told Bloomberg.