BHA’s chief executive Ufi Ibrahim stood up for hotels in a meeting with the organising committee for the London Olympics, LOCOG, following comments earlier this week that hotels were hiking their prices during the games.
Yesterday’s meeting came after the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) and London Mayor Boris Johnson complained of price jacking by hoteliers during the 2012 Games.
ETOA said that international tour operators were “finding it impossible to secure hotel space at viable rates and terms."
Boris Johnson warned hoteliers that this would damage the capital’s reputation in the long term.
"Hiking up prices and taking advantage of London's guests in 2012 is just wrong,” he said. “I urge all right-thinking hoteliers to distance themselves from these sharks and get in line now to sign up to Visit Britain's fair price charter."
Thomas Cook Olympics packages
However, BHA’s Ibrahim yesterday told LOCOG’s CEO Paul Deighton that the issue primarily sits with agents appointed by LOCOG, particularly Thomas Cook – a partner of the London Olympics – for charging high rates on Olympic ticket and hotel packages.
This has suggested that London hotels are profiteering, she said. “This is certainly not the case. London hoteliers have no control over the prices that agents are charging.”
London’s hotel industry has signed agreements to provide 56,000 rooms to LOCOG for the 2012 Games, with room rates based on fair prices practices. The rate agreed upon broadly represents the average of a hotel’s room rates between 2007 and 2010.
Ibrahim said that all hotels that are part of the LOCOG agreement are “without exception” charging fair prices.
Package prices quoted by Thomas Cook have ranged between £198 and £13,998 depending on the class of hotel and the perceived value of the event-tickets included. This has caused the agent to come under heavy criticism from LOCOG.
Thomas Cook told BigHospitality this morning that it has “no comments on the commercial discussions that are taking place”.
LOCOG, BHA and Thomas Cook are meeting this morning to discuss the structure and pricing of the Thomas Cook ticket/hotel packages currently on the market.