Time to sell the rain to the Mediterranians. Seriously.
Cheaper to go to Spain/Portugal than to West Cork. 9% VAT isn’t going to change this.
No one wants to pay 300€ per night to get wet and blown away? Shocking.
I wanted to get a hotel for one night for myself, my wife and our son in Dublin 3 weeks ago. The cheapest room we could find was €465. OK it was with only a couple of days to go but come on. Earlier this year we looked at holiday options and the price of a particularly well known “Family” hotel in the West of Ireland for a week was €1100 more than going to Bella Italia in Italy (including flights and accomodation) the same week. It was a no brainer and we had a fabulous week in Italy that made us think why would we ever bother with Ireland again.
I think the tourist industry is at a tipping point but it is entirely their own fault with price gouging. Zero sympathy for them and we must not drop the VAT rate for them because at they will probably just pocket it or at worse they will simply cut the prices for the wealthy who can afford to pay their insane prices.
Think the industry is fairly under already. My partner and I have a comfortable income. A few years ago would have done a few domestic trips a year. After moving back from Australia in the last year and a bit, we haven’t gone on one because of the sheer cost of hotels and quality for what you get, compared to elsewhere. I know its anecdotal, but it’s the case for many I know. Its a pity because there’s places I genuinely would like to visit, Ireland itself is great – but financially a quick weekend trip doesn’t feel worth it now. Obviously not the worst complaint to have, we’re fortunate enough if that’s what we’re cutting back on. Just an observation.
Because it’s too expensive.
Guinness Storehouse-26 euro.
Jameson tour-26 euro.
Viking Splash-35 euro.
Blarney Castle – 23 euro.
Book of Kells – 26 euro.
And many many more are charging this. It’s a pisstake
Ireland does quite well at the very high end, but we’re not great value for money in the middle market and I think the quality of the product has declined too – and that’s in part the industry and in part the cities and towns need a boot up the rear too – there’s a lot of underinvestment in public realm stuff.
I mean, if you take Cork City for example. The symbol of the city is Shandon – used in posters and photographs and everything else, but when when you visit the area, it’s really rundown and looks like nobody’s spent any money on it in decades. Even every view of the tower is festooned with endless overhead phone lines, cable tv lines and random ESB wires going every direction.
Same applies to many aspects of Dublin. I was in Stoneybatter during the week, supposedly Dublin’s trendy coffee culture vibe place and it is just strewn with torn recycling bags and go down the road a bit further and it’s really rundown in behind Smithfield etc.
Americans are facing into economic turbulence due to Trump and a significantly declining dollar, so their spending power is reducing – a Dollar is only buying 85 cents, and in reality less when you do it at commercial rates. They were nearly on parity a year ago.
Then you’ve got the fact that Dublin in particular lost its vibe a few years ago. Look at the reviews online and you’ll get a sense of it. It’s compared a lot to cities like Brussels and Glasgow, i.e. not somewhere you’d be in a huge rush to visit. It needs to seriously up its game and do something about the fact tha the city centre has declined. Cork’s only marginally better and also feels like it’s only slowly waking up from a long slumber. It got politely described as “tired looking” by a CNN journalist and the reaction was more ‘how dare they’ than … ‘yes, the city is slowly crumbling into the Lee’. I can’t speak for other cities, but those two need to get their heads out of their arses and actually do something about how they look. They are not the centre of the world and can be quite underwhelming, particularly if you end up in a budget hotel in some ‘up and coming’ spot in the city centre.
In general our urban areas are not offering either tourists or those of us who live in them a wonderful quality of life – we need to do something about that. Dublin or Cork should be holding their own against places more like say like Auckland, Copenhagen, Bergen etc etc etc and we’re just not.
European tourists also tend to focus on city tourism more than exploring rural areas. If we are going to create a good impression, we need to get them out into those places and stop pretending we’ve got wonderful cities for week long breaks. All of them are basically day trip locations within big rural hinterlands.
It’s hilarious seeing businesses putting out the ole ‘ your great great great great great grandfather’s dog was Irish’ just to attract American visitors, who up to this point were the only tourists still coming in en masse. Now even Americans are turned off by the sky high prices.
Reap it Vinters and hotels. Your greed will be your downfall 🍾
Stop ripping people off and charge a fair price maybe?
My heart bleeds for them. The fact is, the tourism industry doesn’t want Irish tourists, instead they have focused their attention on the foreign, more wealthy tourist and they back this up by claiming the quality of the product they offer is higher than other countries bla bla bla.
Not once will anyone in the sector admit the problem is pricing. They say it costs a lot to continue to offer such a high quality product. I have tried to support local business and local tourism but they have continued to gouge me, there is no sense of loyalty so I take my money elsewhere.
Honestly, it serves them absolutely right for price gouging for years. The same thing is happening in the pub industry. No sympathy.
The tourism industry needs to quit whinging about the VAT rate and focus on the price it’s being charged on which is 100% within their control.
I haven’t stayed in Dublin in almost a decade because it’s cheaper to fly and stay pretty much anywhere else in Europe.
I ate in a restaurant in a 5 star hotel in Barcelona last weekend. The dinner was cheaper than it would be in Cork and the standard and service was far better.
Ok lets do this! *rubs his crystal ball*
I predict that the price won’t come down a single cent if they lower VAT to 9% for hospitality. Because if there is one thing that the players in the irish toursim industry can do better than moan, it’s this: Being greedy cunts.
Hotels have become too expensive for any budget friendly travel as now the cheaper ones are not open to the public.
Just look at the number of bus tours having drastically fallen since pre-covid levels, and how the hotels which used to cater for bus tours are now used for long term accommodation.
Just spent a week camping down in Kerry. Lots of Irish families, as well as many European tourists with tents, campers and caravans.
Spoke to a few businesses who commented on it being a v quiet year. Rented Kayaks and thought we’d have to book (a Saturday on August). Just turned up and they gave us them for as long as we wanted.
Restaurants seemed fairly busy. Probably less big bus tour groups than I’ve seen down there previously. Went to Kerry Cliffs and that seemed busy enough.
Overall value for money was OK. Think €50 a night for a patch of grass and electrical hook up is still bit steep but the site had a really nice atmosphere. Think this is the only way it makes sense for a family of 4 to visit parts of the country. Anything more than this you’d get better value going abroad with more guaranteed weather…although Europe is fucking roasting nowadays.
Maybe it’s time for a reset? The Americans are the big spenders and they aren’t coming in the same numbers.
If you set your entire tourism industry up as a venus flytrap for wealthy Americans prepared to spend any amount of money on a once in a lifetime nostalgia trip, then you cannot act surprised when no one else wants to come, or that you’re in big trouble when the wealthy Americans start to decide it’s not actually worth it any more.
Went to Galway this year for family holiday absolute rip off spent around 2000 on hotel , things to do and eating out , etc said never again. Could have easily got a flight and all inclusive for that
We have priced visitors out of the market. If I lived in Europe, I would not holiday here. I have had three sets of visitors coming to stay with us over the last year, and I have been embarrassed by the price of things – I almost told them not to come. One set of visitors were doing a road trip around Kerry, and the price of basic hotels was shocking. €7-€8 pints and glasses of wine starting at €8 are not sustainable.
We were looking for a week in Ireland this summer. Ended up getting the ferry and spending the week in hotels in Oxford and surrounds. Lovely experience and half the price of staying in a hotel in Ireland. Will be doing the same again next summer.
Prices are just absurd here.
Took a day trip to Galway last week and there’s a pizza place beside Eyre square charging 6.50 for a slice of pizza or 32 for a full one.
I was getting full pizzas in Rome the previous week for 8.
The industry deserves everything it gets for all the years of price gouging. Pricing ordinary people out for years now. Let it rot!
Was going to book a hotel in the west for a night for a mid week break. It was 260 euro for a room. No way. Did a day trip instead. Thought I’d stop off at the hotel to eat there as their restaurant was decent. Restaurant was closed. Asked what was going on at the reception, that had less than 15% occupancy so they had not opened the restaurant. Opened my phone, yes prices were still at 260 euro. Completely insane.
Rip off Ireland- not nearly worth the price tag
The cost of accommodation is the killer.
I’m not surprised. I moved to Ireland over 4 years ago and I haven’t seen much outside of Dublin or county Wicklow (I was able to see more when I was doing my Erasmus year in the North over 7 years ago when you could still find some cheap hostels in Galway or Cork). Whenever I’m trying to plan some short holidays with my partner, we end up going abroad cause it’s cheaper to pay for flight tickets and a hotel almost everywhere else than just for accomodation here.
Our family stayed in Galway city center for 1 night over the bank holiday weekend. 375 for one room for 3 people. Hotels in Ireland are not worth it for what you get.
Living here for god sake is on a tipping point especially if you’re a young person renting and trying to eat
So they want a few hundred million from the government and a tax cut, and in return they say they’ll pass the savings on to the customer, which we have seen in recent years to be something they absolutely will not follow through on?
I WANT to holiday in Ireland. I just can’t justify that kind of extravagant expense. It’s much more reasonable to go abroad to a nicer, cheaper resort.
As a “northerner” who probably qualifies as a “tourist” heres the reality for myself and a lot of others in our adult group.
* We no longer book hotels when we go to Dublin for concerts. Its too expensive. We drive down and back in the same day.
* We try out best not to go for food / drink before concerts in Dublin. Its too expensive. We eat before crossing the border.
* We would opt for mainland Europe every single time over Ireland due to the cost of food and drink, and the weather
* The only time we actively seek out hotel stays in Ireland now are when we can cash in our Tesco Vouchers for [Hotels.com](http://Hotels.com) and get a 2 night stay for “free” if you will.
Had to stay in cork for 2 nights, €600 including breakfast for a family room in a hotel that was 4km outside the centre!
Hotels here are charging €24 for fish and chips (only looked at the menu)!
A vat reduction will do nothing but increase their greed and profits until they go out of business! And they’ll complain all the way.
This is nothing new. I think it was last year someone pointed out that it would be cheaper for them to book flights and see Bruce Springsteen in the Circus Maximus in Rome and stay for the weekend, that it would be to travel up to Dublin and staying the night in a hotel.
The entire island is just one huge rip off for everything imaginable.
There’s nothing affordable or decently priced anymore, whether it’s hotels, pints or even your groceries.
We’d always go to Donegal over the 12th to get the fuck outta dodge because we live in North Belfast near an interface and it can get very hairy but it was cheaper for us to go to Portugal for a whole week than it was for Donegal for three nights.
I’ve got some Norwegian mates who were over and they were complaining about how dear everything is here and Norway’s renowned for being expensive.
Difference is in Norway they actually get good wages and services.
Stayed in Manhattan for ten days back in May 2023 and that was cheaper than 3 days in Dublin. Insanity
It’s a question of quality.
Hotels used to be luxury, and a night away was an experience.
Now it’s €200 a night for a bog standard bed in a bog standard room with maybe a bog standard breakfast thrown in.
A nice room in a nice hotel costs north of €200 a night, and for that I could be in a different country.
Why would anyone be happy paying that?
Oh no, consequences to tourist price gouging?
I’ve lived in Galway for most of the year in 2017 and I enjoyed coming back to it every year or so from the Netherlands, just to meet with friends, hike in Connemara and just enjoy the craic. It’s sadly come to a point where I’m no longer able to afford it. I’ve seen hotels go from 500 to thrice that for a week in the off-season, no longer with breakfast or anything, for a tiny room (which is all I need). I know there’s a housing crisis and that definitely plays a role too, but the hospitality sector is just as crooked as the landlords. That and fucking hell, Galway/Ireland needs to do something about the degenerates causing problems. It used to be safe to walk around Galway in the dead of night, currently it’s not even safe in broad daylight.
Climate news keeps telling us though that as mainland Europe continues to overheat and burn in summer, lots of Europeans will want to holiday in cooler places like Ireland (and Scandinavia, and they’re no cheaper than we are). So it might suck for a few years while the Americans taper off, then regroup with other visitors. We need to be trying to capitalise on this now though!
Completely agree. We wanted to stay one night anywhere near Rossaveel the first weekend of July but prices were over €340 for two adults. I just don’t know how people are actually affording to pay. Are hotels busy at this price? Most hotels accommodate a percentage of IPAS, I guess which keeps them going. But yeah accommodation prices are exorbitant.
Used to love doing a couple of mini breaks a year around the country. Simply cant afford it anymore. Paying 250 euro to sleep in a bed is ridiculous. Dublin is scandalous prices for everything so i avoid like the plague, id rather fly to Manchester or something to catch a gig.
I wish these hotel owners would simply fuck off, they’ve been price gouging since lockdown. I guarantee if they get a 9% rate, they’ll come back in 12 months asking for 5%.
Out of interest, do we know what capacity the other airports are currently operating at? I see a lot of regional TDs giving figures of between a fifth and a quarter of incoming passengers ending their journey outside of Leinster. Now I know that a Limerick TD giving numbers supplied to him by some regional tourist board should be taken with a pinch of salt, but it would make a lot of sense for the future infrastructure of the whole country if we weren’t simply funnelling everybody through a single airport.
The industry is designed to prey on the goodwill and love Americans have for the country. Like them or dislike them, they come here to spend and see the country. We are ripping them off and it’s coming to a head. We’ll be the ones paying extra to cover it off the back of the industry’s greed.
I have some American friends and they’re beginning to realise despite the fact plane tickets to Ireland are often cheaper than compared to mainland Europe, they’re still spending way more if they come here as opposed to almost anywhere in Europe
Looked up one night in Limerick recently. Everything (regardless of how quality differed) was over €200 euro a night. Some low 200’s and some high. I’m recently back from Barcelona and paid less per night for a gorgeous hotel for the week.
The same can be said for rent in Limerick which is avg of €2k per month now as minimum for either a 1bed or 2bed.
Ireland isn’t based in reality. We do not have the amenities, businesses, or infrastructure to be charging these rates to tourists or locals. We’ll end up driving tourists away like we have our own emigrating.
FFG are the downfall of Ireland.
Myself and my partner came to Dublin for 10 days to visit family and friends. The prices of hotels were astronomical, the prices ranged from £3000 to £5000+ for the 10 nights and that was for 3-4 star! Ended up staying in a mates garage that was converted to an office with a shower room – soo lucky to have good friends there but these hotels are causing this problem – like why would people pay this crazy money anymore for zero value, going on holidays to Ireland has become ridiculous. Price gouging gobshites!
Point to the hotel that’s gone out of business.
When you can do that, I’ll pay attention to thr plight of the poor hoteliers, who went from having their covid closure subsidised to having their rooms filled with Ukrainians that get 1 star service for 4 star subsidies from the state.
Show me the hotel that doesn’t adapt (read – double) their pricing to every gig announcement in Dublin.
Show me where it hurts, because all I see is gouging sleeveens.
This is coming from the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, a lobby group. They’ve made a pre-budget submission to the government calling for increased visitor numbers in Dublin airport, VAT rate cuts for all tourism businesses, and increased government investment. Surprise surprise.
So we can file this article in the bulging folder titled “Lobby groups engages in scaremongering to support their lobbying activities”. I’d appreciate it if the journalist challenged them on their views or gave a voice to their opponents.
48 comments
What could the industry do itself?
Time to sell the rain to the Mediterranians. Seriously.
Cheaper to go to Spain/Portugal than to West Cork. 9% VAT isn’t going to change this.
No one wants to pay 300€ per night to get wet and blown away? Shocking.
I wanted to get a hotel for one night for myself, my wife and our son in Dublin 3 weeks ago. The cheapest room we could find was €465. OK it was with only a couple of days to go but come on. Earlier this year we looked at holiday options and the price of a particularly well known “Family” hotel in the West of Ireland for a week was €1100 more than going to Bella Italia in Italy (including flights and accomodation) the same week. It was a no brainer and we had a fabulous week in Italy that made us think why would we ever bother with Ireland again.
I think the tourist industry is at a tipping point but it is entirely their own fault with price gouging. Zero sympathy for them and we must not drop the VAT rate for them because at they will probably just pocket it or at worse they will simply cut the prices for the wealthy who can afford to pay their insane prices.
Think the industry is fairly under already. My partner and I have a comfortable income. A few years ago would have done a few domestic trips a year. After moving back from Australia in the last year and a bit, we haven’t gone on one because of the sheer cost of hotels and quality for what you get, compared to elsewhere. I know its anecdotal, but it’s the case for many I know. Its a pity because there’s places I genuinely would like to visit, Ireland itself is great – but financially a quick weekend trip doesn’t feel worth it now. Obviously not the worst complaint to have, we’re fortunate enough if that’s what we’re cutting back on. Just an observation.
Because it’s too expensive.
Guinness Storehouse-26 euro.
Jameson tour-26 euro.
Viking Splash-35 euro.
Blarney Castle – 23 euro.
Book of Kells – 26 euro.
And many many more are charging this. It’s a pisstake
Ireland does quite well at the very high end, but we’re not great value for money in the middle market and I think the quality of the product has declined too – and that’s in part the industry and in part the cities and towns need a boot up the rear too – there’s a lot of underinvestment in public realm stuff.
I mean, if you take Cork City for example. The symbol of the city is Shandon – used in posters and photographs and everything else, but when when you visit the area, it’s really rundown and looks like nobody’s spent any money on it in decades. Even every view of the tower is festooned with endless overhead phone lines, cable tv lines and random ESB wires going every direction.
Same applies to many aspects of Dublin. I was in Stoneybatter during the week, supposedly Dublin’s trendy coffee culture vibe place and it is just strewn with torn recycling bags and go down the road a bit further and it’s really rundown in behind Smithfield etc.
Americans are facing into economic turbulence due to Trump and a significantly declining dollar, so their spending power is reducing – a Dollar is only buying 85 cents, and in reality less when you do it at commercial rates. They were nearly on parity a year ago.
Then you’ve got the fact that Dublin in particular lost its vibe a few years ago. Look at the reviews online and you’ll get a sense of it. It’s compared a lot to cities like Brussels and Glasgow, i.e. not somewhere you’d be in a huge rush to visit. It needs to seriously up its game and do something about the fact tha the city centre has declined. Cork’s only marginally better and also feels like it’s only slowly waking up from a long slumber. It got politely described as “tired looking” by a CNN journalist and the reaction was more ‘how dare they’ than … ‘yes, the city is slowly crumbling into the Lee’. I can’t speak for other cities, but those two need to get their heads out of their arses and actually do something about how they look. They are not the centre of the world and can be quite underwhelming, particularly if you end up in a budget hotel in some ‘up and coming’ spot in the city centre.
In general our urban areas are not offering either tourists or those of us who live in them a wonderful quality of life – we need to do something about that. Dublin or Cork should be holding their own against places more like say like Auckland, Copenhagen, Bergen etc etc etc and we’re just not.
European tourists also tend to focus on city tourism more than exploring rural areas. If we are going to create a good impression, we need to get them out into those places and stop pretending we’ve got wonderful cities for week long breaks. All of them are basically day trip locations within big rural hinterlands.
It’s hilarious seeing businesses putting out the ole ‘ your great great great great great grandfather’s dog was Irish’ just to attract American visitors, who up to this point were the only tourists still coming in en masse. Now even Americans are turned off by the sky high prices.
Reap it Vinters and hotels. Your greed will be your downfall 🍾
Stop ripping people off and charge a fair price maybe?
My heart bleeds for them. The fact is, the tourism industry doesn’t want Irish tourists, instead they have focused their attention on the foreign, more wealthy tourist and they back this up by claiming the quality of the product they offer is higher than other countries bla bla bla.
Not once will anyone in the sector admit the problem is pricing. They say it costs a lot to continue to offer such a high quality product. I have tried to support local business and local tourism but they have continued to gouge me, there is no sense of loyalty so I take my money elsewhere.
Honestly, it serves them absolutely right for price gouging for years. The same thing is happening in the pub industry. No sympathy.
The tourism industry needs to quit whinging about the VAT rate and focus on the price it’s being charged on which is 100% within their control.
I haven’t stayed in Dublin in almost a decade because it’s cheaper to fly and stay pretty much anywhere else in Europe.
I ate in a restaurant in a 5 star hotel in Barcelona last weekend. The dinner was cheaper than it would be in Cork and the standard and service was far better.
Ok lets do this! *rubs his crystal ball*
I predict that the price won’t come down a single cent if they lower VAT to 9% for hospitality. Because if there is one thing that the players in the irish toursim industry can do better than moan, it’s this: Being greedy cunts.
Hotels have become too expensive for any budget friendly travel as now the cheaper ones are not open to the public.
Just look at the number of bus tours having drastically fallen since pre-covid levels, and how the hotels which used to cater for bus tours are now used for long term accommodation.
Just spent a week camping down in Kerry. Lots of Irish families, as well as many European tourists with tents, campers and caravans.
Spoke to a few businesses who commented on it being a v quiet year. Rented Kayaks and thought we’d have to book (a Saturday on August). Just turned up and they gave us them for as long as we wanted.
Restaurants seemed fairly busy. Probably less big bus tour groups than I’ve seen down there previously. Went to Kerry Cliffs and that seemed busy enough.
Overall value for money was OK. Think €50 a night for a patch of grass and electrical hook up is still bit steep but the site had a really nice atmosphere. Think this is the only way it makes sense for a family of 4 to visit parts of the country. Anything more than this you’d get better value going abroad with more guaranteed weather…although Europe is fucking roasting nowadays.
Maybe it’s time for a reset? The Americans are the big spenders and they aren’t coming in the same numbers.
If you set your entire tourism industry up as a venus flytrap for wealthy Americans prepared to spend any amount of money on a once in a lifetime nostalgia trip, then you cannot act surprised when no one else wants to come, or that you’re in big trouble when the wealthy Americans start to decide it’s not actually worth it any more.
Went to Galway this year for family holiday absolute rip off spent around 2000 on hotel , things to do and eating out , etc said never again. Could have easily got a flight and all inclusive for that
We have priced visitors out of the market. If I lived in Europe, I would not holiday here. I have had three sets of visitors coming to stay with us over the last year, and I have been embarrassed by the price of things – I almost told them not to come. One set of visitors were doing a road trip around Kerry, and the price of basic hotels was shocking. €7-€8 pints and glasses of wine starting at €8 are not sustainable.
We were looking for a week in Ireland this summer. Ended up getting the ferry and spending the week in hotels in Oxford and surrounds. Lovely experience and half the price of staying in a hotel in Ireland. Will be doing the same again next summer.
Prices are just absurd here.
Took a day trip to Galway last week and there’s a pizza place beside Eyre square charging 6.50 for a slice of pizza or 32 for a full one.
I was getting full pizzas in Rome the previous week for 8.
The industry deserves everything it gets for all the years of price gouging. Pricing ordinary people out for years now. Let it rot!
Was going to book a hotel in the west for a night for a mid week break. It was 260 euro for a room. No way. Did a day trip instead. Thought I’d stop off at the hotel to eat there as their restaurant was decent. Restaurant was closed. Asked what was going on at the reception, that had less than 15% occupancy so they had not opened the restaurant. Opened my phone, yes prices were still at 260 euro. Completely insane.
Rip off Ireland- not nearly worth the price tag
The cost of accommodation is the killer.
I’m not surprised. I moved to Ireland over 4 years ago and I haven’t seen much outside of Dublin or county Wicklow (I was able to see more when I was doing my Erasmus year in the North over 7 years ago when you could still find some cheap hostels in Galway or Cork). Whenever I’m trying to plan some short holidays with my partner, we end up going abroad cause it’s cheaper to pay for flight tickets and a hotel almost everywhere else than just for accomodation here.
Our family stayed in Galway city center for 1 night over the bank holiday weekend. 375 for one room for 3 people. Hotels in Ireland are not worth it for what you get.
Living here for god sake is on a tipping point especially if you’re a young person renting and trying to eat
So they want a few hundred million from the government and a tax cut, and in return they say they’ll pass the savings on to the customer, which we have seen in recent years to be something they absolutely will not follow through on?
I WANT to holiday in Ireland. I just can’t justify that kind of extravagant expense. It’s much more reasonable to go abroad to a nicer, cheaper resort.
As a “northerner” who probably qualifies as a “tourist” heres the reality for myself and a lot of others in our adult group.
* We no longer book hotels when we go to Dublin for concerts. Its too expensive. We drive down and back in the same day.
* We try out best not to go for food / drink before concerts in Dublin. Its too expensive. We eat before crossing the border.
* We would opt for mainland Europe every single time over Ireland due to the cost of food and drink, and the weather
* The only time we actively seek out hotel stays in Ireland now are when we can cash in our Tesco Vouchers for [Hotels.com](http://Hotels.com) and get a 2 night stay for “free” if you will.
Had to stay in cork for 2 nights, €600 including breakfast for a family room in a hotel that was 4km outside the centre!
Hotels here are charging €24 for fish and chips (only looked at the menu)!
A vat reduction will do nothing but increase their greed and profits until they go out of business! And they’ll complain all the way.
This is nothing new. I think it was last year someone pointed out that it would be cheaper for them to book flights and see Bruce Springsteen in the Circus Maximus in Rome and stay for the weekend, that it would be to travel up to Dublin and staying the night in a hotel.
The entire island is just one huge rip off for everything imaginable.
There’s nothing affordable or decently priced anymore, whether it’s hotels, pints or even your groceries.
We’d always go to Donegal over the 12th to get the fuck outta dodge because we live in North Belfast near an interface and it can get very hairy but it was cheaper for us to go to Portugal for a whole week than it was for Donegal for three nights.
I’ve got some Norwegian mates who were over and they were complaining about how dear everything is here and Norway’s renowned for being expensive.
Difference is in Norway they actually get good wages and services.
Stayed in Manhattan for ten days back in May 2023 and that was cheaper than 3 days in Dublin. Insanity
It’s a question of quality.
Hotels used to be luxury, and a night away was an experience.
Now it’s €200 a night for a bog standard bed in a bog standard room with maybe a bog standard breakfast thrown in.
A nice room in a nice hotel costs north of €200 a night, and for that I could be in a different country.
Why would anyone be happy paying that?
Oh no, consequences to tourist price gouging?
I’ve lived in Galway for most of the year in 2017 and I enjoyed coming back to it every year or so from the Netherlands, just to meet with friends, hike in Connemara and just enjoy the craic. It’s sadly come to a point where I’m no longer able to afford it. I’ve seen hotels go from 500 to thrice that for a week in the off-season, no longer with breakfast or anything, for a tiny room (which is all I need). I know there’s a housing crisis and that definitely plays a role too, but the hospitality sector is just as crooked as the landlords. That and fucking hell, Galway/Ireland needs to do something about the degenerates causing problems. It used to be safe to walk around Galway in the dead of night, currently it’s not even safe in broad daylight.
Climate news keeps telling us though that as mainland Europe continues to overheat and burn in summer, lots of Europeans will want to holiday in cooler places like Ireland (and Scandinavia, and they’re no cheaper than we are). So it might suck for a few years while the Americans taper off, then regroup with other visitors. We need to be trying to capitalise on this now though!
Completely agree. We wanted to stay one night anywhere near Rossaveel the first weekend of July but prices were over €340 for two adults. I just don’t know how people are actually affording to pay. Are hotels busy at this price? Most hotels accommodate a percentage of IPAS, I guess which keeps them going. But yeah accommodation prices are exorbitant.
Used to love doing a couple of mini breaks a year around the country. Simply cant afford it anymore. Paying 250 euro to sleep in a bed is ridiculous. Dublin is scandalous prices for everything so i avoid like the plague, id rather fly to Manchester or something to catch a gig.
I wish these hotel owners would simply fuck off, they’ve been price gouging since lockdown. I guarantee if they get a 9% rate, they’ll come back in 12 months asking for 5%.
Out of interest, do we know what capacity the other airports are currently operating at? I see a lot of regional TDs giving figures of between a fifth and a quarter of incoming passengers ending their journey outside of Leinster. Now I know that a Limerick TD giving numbers supplied to him by some regional tourist board should be taken with a pinch of salt, but it would make a lot of sense for the future infrastructure of the whole country if we weren’t simply funnelling everybody through a single airport.
The industry is designed to prey on the goodwill and love Americans have for the country. Like them or dislike them, they come here to spend and see the country. We are ripping them off and it’s coming to a head. We’ll be the ones paying extra to cover it off the back of the industry’s greed.
I have some American friends and they’re beginning to realise despite the fact plane tickets to Ireland are often cheaper than compared to mainland Europe, they’re still spending way more if they come here as opposed to almost anywhere in Europe
Looked up one night in Limerick recently. Everything (regardless of how quality differed) was over €200 euro a night. Some low 200’s and some high. I’m recently back from Barcelona and paid less per night for a gorgeous hotel for the week.
The same can be said for rent in Limerick which is avg of €2k per month now as minimum for either a 1bed or 2bed.
Ireland isn’t based in reality. We do not have the amenities, businesses, or infrastructure to be charging these rates to tourists or locals. We’ll end up driving tourists away like we have our own emigrating.
FFG are the downfall of Ireland.
Myself and my partner came to Dublin for 10 days to visit family and friends. The prices of hotels were astronomical, the prices ranged from £3000 to £5000+ for the 10 nights and that was for 3-4 star! Ended up staying in a mates garage that was converted to an office with a shower room – soo lucky to have good friends there but these hotels are causing this problem – like why would people pay this crazy money anymore for zero value, going on holidays to Ireland has become ridiculous. Price gouging gobshites!
Point to the hotel that’s gone out of business.
When you can do that, I’ll pay attention to thr plight of the poor hoteliers, who went from having their covid closure subsidised to having their rooms filled with Ukrainians that get 1 star service for 4 star subsidies from the state.
Show me the hotel that doesn’t adapt (read – double) their pricing to every gig announcement in Dublin.
Show me where it hurts, because all I see is gouging sleeveens.
This is coming from the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, a lobby group. They’ve made a pre-budget submission to the government calling for increased visitor numbers in Dublin airport, VAT rate cuts for all tourism businesses, and increased government investment. Surprise surprise.
So we can file this article in the bulging folder titled “Lobby groups engages in scaremongering to support their lobbying activities”. I’d appreciate it if the journalist challenged them on their views or gave a voice to their opponents.
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