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Monday 14 December 2009
South African on Cup hotels
‘Room rates for next June have already risen to five times the usual level. Charles Starmer-Smith reports’
British visitors to South Africa during the World Cup next June could have to pay five times the usual rate for a hotel room. Hoteliers, official accommodation agents and tour operators are all taking advantage of the limited availability during the five-week tournament.
Research this week on Hotels.com, the accommodation website, showed that the four-star, centrally located Cape Town Lodge Hotel, which from May 28 to June 5 charges £68 per room per night, is raising its rate on June 11, when the tournament gets under way, to £395. That is a rise of 480 per cent and makes its rate £120 more than the Ritz in London charges for a double room during the same period. Room rates at the five-star Compass House Boutique Villa in BantryBay, Cape Town, will rise from £58 per night to £312 – an increase of 438 per cent.
Package prices are also high because demand for flights is driving up fares. A six-day trip to the quarter-final in Johannesburg, including four nights in a three-star hotel in Sandton, return flight and ticket, costs from £7,300 with Thomas Cook.
Rates for private villas have also risen sharply. One property in the exclusive Cape Town suburb of BantryBay was this week being offered for £30,000 a night – five times its normal high-season rate of £6,000 a night.
Hotel rates always rise during big sporting events: during the Olympic Games in Athens (2004) and Sydney (2000) they were three times the usual level. But the increases in South Africa almost match those made during the Beijing Olympics, when hoteliers were accused of exploitation. Although prices initially increased seven-fold, they fell sharply in the run-up to the Games because tourists were failing to book.
About 25,000 England supporters are expected to be among the 500,000 visiting South Africa next June, but the tourist board is banking on up to 300,000 extra visitors arriving in the five years after the tournament as more money is invested in tourism; 34 hotels are due to open in Cape Town alone in the next few years.
Restaurants, bars and attractions are also expected to raise prices considerably during the tournament.
Calvyn Gilfellan, a tourism official based in Cape Town, said that to indulge in profiteering during the World Cup would be “like killing the goose that laid the golden egg”. British-based South Africa travel specialists have also expressed concern at the long-term damage that could be done to the country's image as a good-value destination.
“Sadly, it is more expensive to go to South Africa than it was to attend the 2002 World Cup in Tokyo – traditionally considered an expensive destination,” said the managing director of one leading tour operator.
Delia Fischer, a spokeswoman for Fifa, has admitted that Match, the official accommodation agent, is adding commissions of up to 30 per cent on all bookings, but she blames the rises on increased demand.
“There will be some difference between the prices charged in the normal off-season and what hotels may be charging next June,” she said. “All the Match-approved hotels will be charging their high-season rates and a 30 per cent commission is quite standard.”
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