The warm season has just ended. Yet, to sleep away from home, whether for work or leisure, exorbitant amounts are required. Just open platforms like Booking.it and Airbnb to check the crazy prices reached by hoteliers and landlords who rent for short periods in cities such as Rome, Milan, Florence, Bologna. And not just in the city center. Regardless of the stars of the hotels and the services offered, the costs have also increased for the low season months.
To book a double room for single use in Rome, in the Prati area, the price varies from 700 to 15 thousand euros for three nights. But it is enough to filter the results according to the preferred budget to see the cost trend: in fact, only one room is available in the price range 0-150 euros and 363 from 600 euros upwards. In Milan, the cost of a room in a hostel starts at 230 euros for just two nights. The one-star hotels, on the other hand, exceed 300 euros, 150 per night for a double bed. But those who want to stay a few hundred meters from the Duomo would spend exorbitant amounts, up to 19 thousand euros at Flat in Milan 1 for two nights, from 23 to 25 September. Contacted by TPI, from the Flat in they explain that the booking is made only through Booking.it, and that «if the amount is so high it is because the room is already occupied. If one is willing to pay, he will reimburse those who have booked at a lower price, and immediately reserve the room ». A kind of auction, the room goes to the best buyer. In the Corvetto area, also in Milan, just for the fact of being served by the subway, two nights in an apartment cost 18,130 euros. And again at the London Hotel, two stars, on the phone we are told that «a double room for single use is the last one left, for only two nights, right? It’s 660 euros. ”Even in Florence, the prices for two nights are high: the lowest figure concerns a bed and breakfast about nine kilometers from the city center, which sets the price for a room at 203 euros. Also in this case, as in Rome and Milan, a maximum of 6,345 euros is reached for a Junior suite with two single beds, one kilometer from the center. In Bologna, however, to stay in a convenient location, allowing yourself the opportunity to visit the historic center on foot, you need to start from a minimum of one thousand euros. In the airport area, it starts from 400 euros. Going down to Campania, for a weekend in Naples it starts from 120 euros for hostels up to 3,035 euros for a room in a bed and breakfast in the historic center. There is a doubt that the prices on Booking are distorted, especially in light of what the Milan hotelier told us about how to book rooms. Contacted, the owner of the b & b in the historic center of Naples, in fact, explains to us that the price is so high because renovations are underway in the structure and refers us to her son, owner of a second b & b: “I rent on Airbnb – he says – but if you book with me I’ll save you a little bit, at least the twenty euros in commissions that the app automatically generates “: the price per night varies, however, from 80 to 100 euros, depending on the day. Even on the Amalfi Coast, despite the low season, the prices are showing signs of falling, with an average of around 600 euros for three-star hotels. Moving on to the islands, in Sicily, in Palermo, for three nights in a bed and breakfast it starts from 144 euros up to a thousand for a stay in a suite. In Sardinia, however, the increase in prices would seem to be more contained: the highest is 666 euros for three nights.
According to Istat data, in August 2022 the prices of accommodation and catering services increased by 6.4 percent compared to August 2021. According to the general manager of Federalberghi, Alessandro Nucara, the data to be taken into consideration are the official ones: ” Istat says that the increase is 6 per cent with an average inflation of 8 per cent, so in our sector the increase was lower ». Nucara finds it hard to believe that for three nights in a one-star hotel the price exceeds 200 euros, without however denying that the prices have increased, “but – he says – hence to represent the Italian hotel system as a system in which it takes a thousand euros to go to the hotel, I would go cautiously. I confirm that there are hotels for a thousand euros, but you can sleep outside even with 50 euros ». And he continues: «In Italy, however, we have 34 thousand hotels, a million rooms, you can choose abundantly where to go to sleep through the booking platforms. The average market situation is not this, fortunately in our country there are official surveys ». Then, “if there is a fair in Milan this week or there is a particular event that causes prices to go up, maybe that’s why”.
Certainly, as verified by TPI, on the online booking platforms the aforementioned prices are not always real. “It is obvious that sleeping in Rome in August cost less than in September. These are normal market trends », continues the general manager of Federalberghi. And when asked if, by chance, any hotelier is speculating, he declares: «We are talking about a sector that has been slapped everywhere in the last three years, hotels closed or empty. If you are looking for cases of speculation, you have to look elsewhere. Speculation at the moment is being done by those who are dramatically raising the prices of their bills, without having in parallel a real increase in cost. That the hotels are speculating, no ». Yet the example of the hotel in Milan we contacted suggests. According to Nucara, moreover, it is necessary to take into account the presence of demonstrations or events in the various Italian cities: “Even in London to book on the days of the queen’s funeral, to find a place you had to go far and at very high prices”.
Not just the fault of the gas
That inflation has soared to an all-time high since Putin invaded Ukraine is a fact, along with the price of fuel, gas, electricity and other commodities, including basic necessities, such as wheat. In fact, hoteliers have seen their expenses triple in a few months. But not only: «There have been increases largely linked to expensive energy, which is not just a” high bill “. Because the cost of laundry has gone up, the cost of bread, everything has gone up. In these days, laundry bills arrive, which is essential for a hotel, just think of all the sheets and towels, with increases ranging from 15 to 40 percent. It is not only the gas and electricity bills that come with a tripled cost “, explains Nucara, who adds that” according to our estimate, we have come with energy alone to absorb 18 percent of the turnover of Italian hotels, however in addition to that, we also have the other cost increases, because almost everything is transported, therefore it is affected by the increase in the cost of fuel, and everything is then transformed, therefore it requires electricity ».
Giuliano Guida Bardi, vice president of Federalberghi Sardinia and owner of the Miramare hotel museum in Cagliari, also explains that even in Sardinia, “there have been and are increases, but they are limited. In my hotel, which is very small, we paid 6-700 euros for gas a month and 1,200 euros for electricity. We went to 6,200 gas and 5,000 monthly electricity. Spending grew eightfold, while spending on daily purchases doubled. So, the prices that should have increased by double, we have increased by 20 percent », he concludes.
The prices in hotels, therefore, increase both in the event of an increase in demand and because the expenses to be faced for hoteliers are increasingly conspicuous. But not everyone travels for mere pleasure, there are those who are forced to sleep away from home for work at their own expense. Is it right that they all lose out?
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