For example, an apartment listed on Airbnb claiming to be 250 meters from the stadium is listed as Motera cricket stadium home furnished 6 bed-2 BHK, available for Rs 81,000 per night.
Rishav Poddar, one of the hosts offering weekend getaways around Ahmedabad on the website, told The Indian Express that he also provides free transportation from the stadium to the venue. The drive from the airport to the site, a weekend villa, takes about 45-55 minutes. It covers an area of 6,000 square yards and has three bedrooms and other rooms to accommodate people, he added.
According to the website, the villa is being sold at Rs 35,000 per night. But if it has to be booked on the same day as the match – October 14 – one will have to shell out Rs 1,21,500.
Jainam Shah, who has listed a villa in Sanand on Airbnb, plans to sell it for Rs 55,000 per night on October 13 and 14 instead of the usual Rs 19,371. per night. We are working on dinamic pricing, which is adjusted based on demand and site searches, he said.
Ahmedabad is hosting ICC events and the biggest matches of this year’s World Cup for the first time. England face New Zealand on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium – this match will be played after the opening ceremony. The next match to be played at the stadium is India vs Pakistan on October 14, and this is India’s only confirmed match in the city unless the team makes it to the final.
Other matches to be played at the stadium include England vs Australia on Nov. 4, South Africa vs Afghanistan on Nov. 10 and the final on Nov. 19.
In view of the India-Pakistan match, hotels have raised their room rates almost 10 times in addition to providing bed and breakfasts.
At the 49-room Hillock Hotel, located on Vaishnodevi Circle between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, the normal rate is Rs 7000-15000. But on match days, it will pEach of their numbers for Rs. 50,000-55,000. The price will be doubled on the day of the India-Pakistan match.
Neeraj Gewali, general manager of The Hillock Hotel, said: As long as India doesn’t make it to the final, there won’t be much hype apart from the India-Pakistan match. There have been many inquiries online from foreign travelers and corporate companies, but the inquiries are not turning into confirmations as many have not bought tickets in time.
Though we are currently filling 20 percent of the rooms on match days, we will achieve 100 percent occupancy in the future, Gewali said. On a normal day, the occupancy rate at the Hillock Hotel is around 65-75 percent.
Vivek Vyas, general manager of Apricot Hotel in Motera, said they have started receiving confirmed bookings since the day the World Cup schedule became known, but not all rooms are sold out yet. Some government officials have taken 6-7 of the 21 rooms…they are currently on standby. The rest of them, all other rooms have been booked, he added.
Hotel Apricot is selling each room for Rs 3,500 on a normal day. However, on match days, rooms are sold at Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000, Vyas said. He added that room bookings for the India-Pakistan match were not affected despite the postponement of the match date from October 15 as most of the bookings were made for October 14 and 15.
Asked about the price hike, Vyas said, People are saying that this is the only time for recovery… the hotel business is not so good… so hotels are looking at this opportunity to make money back and finish the year in profit. Even after Covid, I haven’t seen such a flood of tourists and foreigners (as I did before the pandemic).
Hotel Apricot is a luxury boutique hotel located 3 km from Narendra Modi Stadium. The hotel’s normal occupancy rate is around 60-70%, says Vyas.
Narendra Somani, who owns thet The Grand Bhagwati hotel in Bodakdev on SG Road – 13.5 km from Motera – said on October 14 the hotel is completely sold out. We were selling rooms at Rs 7,400 each. There is no point in charging a higher price… within two days, if we raise prices further, our annual GST will go up to 18%.
Somani, president of Gujarat Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association, added: It is a luxury (to watch the World Cup). During the Covid-19 pandemic, five-star hotels were selling rooms for Rs 2,000… no one came to our rescue then. If they can sell tickets for Rs 1 lakh, why can’t we sell rooms at higher prices?
The normal occupancy rate at the 37-room Grand Bhagwati is 70-80%, hotel sources said.
Prakash Bhojan, manager of Rudra Palace Hotel in Thaltej, said, I have hardly received any inquiries for the World Cup matches, but we are sticking to the usual price of Rs 1,500 per night. In favor of.It can go up to Rs. 2,000 depending on the need. I don’t think it is necessary to inflate the price as many people will tend to get to their disposal late and last day will book in hotels like mine. The normal occupancy rate of the hotel is around 40-50% as per sources in the hotel.
Meanwhile, on the Airbnb website, while on a normal night a 2 BHK stay at the sprawling Golf Villa Farm in Ahmedabad costs Rs 7,500, on the day of the India-Pakistan match the price soared to Rs 50,000 per night. The Serene Getaway, located near the vibrant Law Garden area and offered by Uteliaa Homestay, normally sells for Rs 4,309 per night, but will be priced at Rs 73,500 per night on October 13 and 14.
Harit Shukla, tourism secretary, Gujarat government, told The Indian Express that there is no official body regulating hotel rates. They pay GST and get permits from the municipalitiesof the elite. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Until the 2000s, four- and five-star hotels in Ahmedabad accommodated only 400-500 people. Now you have to accommodate a crowd of one lakh (for the World Cup). Demand far outstrips supply.
Gujarat is well placed to host conferences and events like Vibrant Gujarat, but no city in India can have such resources to host events like the World Cup, which is held once in four years, he added.