No Volvo rip-offs – but don’t lecture us, say hotels

Date Published: 27-Jan-2009

HOTEL bosses in the city insist they will not engage in “price gouging” or “profiteering” during the Volvo Ocean Race stopover but warned that demand, and not semi-State bodies, will determine their pricing during the event.

Paul Gill, Chairman of the Galway Branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, said the city hotel sector wouldn’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater” by charging excessive rates during the event which is expected to bring up to 140,000 visitors to Galway for two weeks in May and June.

However, he said it is illegal for semi-State bodies such as Fáilte Ireland West to be dictating what price hotels should be charging during the stopover and said that ultimately supply and demand will dictate their pricing structures.

Mr Gill’s comments come in the wake of…