As hundreds of thousands of people descend on the British capital ahead of Monday’s burial for Queen Elizabeth, hotel rates and airfares are skyrocketing, which may offer some relief to the city’s struggling tourism industry.
The queen, 96, passed away on September 8 at the end of a 70-year reign that made her Britain’s longest-reigning head of state and one of the most recognisable faces in the world as the only British monarch most living people had ever known.
According to Hayley Berg, head economist at travel startup Hopper, the average price of a hotel in London has gone up since the news of her passing to $384 per night from $244 per night.
Accommodations are in high demand as mourners travel to the capital to pay their respects and international delegations gather for the funeral on September 19, with organisers bracing for a sizable crowd.
From Wednesday evening until early on the day of her funeral, hundreds of thousands of people are anticipated to pass by her casket during a 24-hour lying-in-state.
According to their websites, the upscale Mayfair neighborhood’s Claridge’s, the Connaught, The Dorchester, and the Berkeley hotels were fully booked for Sunday night.
As the city’s hotel system exceeds 95% occupancy levels, rates for a five-star hotel have surpassed 1,200 pounds ($1,388) and are predicted to quadruple over the following five days, according to HotelPlanner.
It said that more than 60% of travellers were foreigners.
A deluge of conventional hotel chains has also occurred. A Reuters check revealed that more than a dozen of Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn, hotels in the city centre were fully booked.
Travelodge, which has 78 hotels in the city, reported a rise in demand from all parts of the UK.
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