Paris Olympics Problems Continue With Price-Gouging Claims

The troubled runup to next year’s Paris Olympics has spread to a new sector: hotel prices.

A new report from Paris tourism showed that hotel prices will rise 314% between the summer of 2023 and next summer’s Games, somewhat similar to price hikes seen for prior Olympics and World Cups. Average prices are projected to rise from $185 per night to $765.

The increases were even steeper for better accommodations, with average prices rising 475% for three-star hotels.

“We want popular Games, but it can’t be popular Games at 700 euros a night,” Frederic Hocquard, Paris’ deputy mayor for tourism and nightlife, told Reuters. “You can’t triple the price of the rooms. Maybe you can allow a 10, 15% increase, but tripling the prices won’t work.”

The lodging issue follows several months of conflict for the Paris Olympics and its organizers, including local rioting, budget concerns, bed-bug infestations, serious corruption allegations, and controversy over alcohol restrictions — plus issues surrounding high ticket prices, ambitious event logistics, and the city’s planned treatment of its homeless during the Games.

Local officials also expect many fans to commute into Paris from various surrounding towns due to the hotel prices.

Airbnb Issues

Hocquard said the hotel price increases also will help “feed the Airbnb beast.” But the French government is expected to impose a series of new sanctions to help control that market.

Among the anticipated measures will be a new taxation structure on owners who rent their homes and heightened enforcement on the city’s 120-day-limit per year for residents renting their properties.