Insufficient number of hotel rooms in Wroclaw is likely to increase the prices of accommodation. The city authorities warn the hoteliers not to raise the prices too much.
The football championship Euro 2012 is coming close and both Poland and Ukraine is getting ready for the influx of fans and tourists. One of the Polish cities that will host the matches, Wroclaw, however already announced insufficient accommodation capacities.
Altogether there are 1,600 hotel rooms in 4 and 5 star hotels in Wroclaw. All these rooms are already booked by the UEFA organization. Football fans planning to watch the matches at the local Municipal Stadium will thus have to go for accommodation facilities of lower standard.
Wroclaw authorities fear that the situation might be similar to the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008. The prices of hotel rooms in the Chinese capital increased so much that many of the visitors rather opted for hotels in the surroundings. As a result, Beijing recorded 25% less bookings of hotel rooms in 2008 than in 2007, reported Tur-info.pl.
“If the hoteliers increase the prices too much, visitors might simply come only for the match and return home instead of staying in the hotel,” said Michał Janicki the Wroclaw City representative. “The city however is doing everything possible to convince the hoteliers to keep the prices down.”
While the hoteliers claim that they understand the aim of the city authorities to promote the event, the profits seem to be more important. None of the hotels has increased the prices so far. However, some of the hotel managers admit that in case of growing demand the prices are likely to go up.
Euro 2012 will take place between 8 June and 1 July, 2012. Besides Wroclaw, the other host cities in Poland are Warsaw, Poznan and Gdansk.