You're reading: Despite pledges, hotel prices could keep fans away

Staying in one modest three-star hotel in central Donetsk in April will set you back around 40 euros per night for a twin room.

Two months later, when a Euro 2012 football semifinal match will take place in the city, the same room will cost 600 euros per night, with a minimum four-night stay, bringing the total price to 2,400 euros.

The high prices are frightening away even the staunchest of football fans, and threaten to kill the goose that could have laid the golden egg.
Euro 2012 organizers say reasonably priced rooms are available through official operators.

But U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this month that England supporters had not taken up their full allocation of tickets for its game against France on June 11.

“They are playing with fire,” David Taylor, chief executive of UEFA Events told the newspaper. “It is inevitable to an extent. People want to see what they can get out of the situation, but some prices can be counterproductive and, to be honest, some of the prices are quite ridiculous.”

The surge in stories slamming the greed of local hotel owners has led Yevhen Samarsky, head of the nongovernmental Tourism and Resorts Council, to start a blacklist of Ukrainian hotels.

“Behaving in that way, particular hotels shadow the whole sector. That is why we decided to name those hotels so that everyone knows who is overpricing the rooms,” Samarsky said.

There are already five hotels on the list, available in Russian at http://prohotelia.com.ua/2012/03/black-list-euro-2012. The five include all four host cities: two in Donetsk – Village Hostel and Agat; one in Kyiv – Ekotel Nivky; one in Lviv – Herold; and one in Kharkiv – Noah.

Samarsky plans to update the list and start sharing the blacklist widely on the Internet, in football fans forums and in other communities.

Camping places were designed to be the cheapest accommodation for Euro 2012. However, a spot at a campsite in Donetsk will cost up to Hr 800 per night during the tournament, the normal price of a good room downtown.

At the same time, the accommodation website booking.com offers beds in hostels in Kyiv on the final match date, July 1, with prices of Hr 275 and Hr 400.

“It reminds me of situation in Beijing in 2008 when the Olympics were held there,” Samarsky said. “There were attempts to make prices 10 times higher than usual, but in the end, the market put everything in order because there was a surplus of rooms. Unlike Bejing, our cities have the opposite proportion.”

According to Samarsky, slightly increased hotel prices are fine during a championship, but charging up to five or more times is hurting Ukraine’s image.

In the face of this potential embarrassment, one group of citizens has stood up to try to help the country save face. Ivan Varchenko from Kharkiv was so shocked with the situation that he offered to put up foreign fans in his own apartment for free.

“I was just so disturbed with the mess and the way it will affect Ukraine’s image,” Varchenko says. “I mean, we are not the kind of people this makes us look like. Ukrainians have always been a hospitable and welcoming nation, and I’m going to prove it.”

Varchenko started a Facebook group called “Welcome to Ukraine!,” where about 145 people from all the host cities are offering their apartments for foreigners for free.

“The scheme is simple. Once a tourist who is coming for the Euro asks in the group who could host him in a particular city on particular dates, someone can contact him. They talk by Skype to make sure both are fine and arrange an agreement,” Varchenko said.

Ihor Pylypchuk, a group member from Kyiv, has already found two Euro 2012 guests. Two men from Valencia, Spain, a father and a son, are staying in his apartment for the tournament final – assuming the Spanish team makes it that far. But Pylypchuk is anxious to invite more guests for the rest of championship.

“My future Spanish guests already booked a room in Kyiv for 300 euros per night, and it was a pretty poor hotel. I actually felt ashamed for my city. So I invited them to stay at my place instead,” Pylypchuk said.

According to Samarsky, it is likely that some hotels will reduce their prices at the very last moment if they still have spare rooms. But he suggests another solution is locals offering rooms to fans, for a small fee.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]