lready counting down the days until the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the city is getting ready to welcome about 15 million guests. But a strange trend is starting to show: hotel prices are going down because there are more rooms available than people want.
According to data from the insurance company Réassurez-moi, the cost of booking a night’s stay in Paris or nearby places during the Olympics goes down by a lot. In April, the average price dropped to €436, which is a big drop from July of last year, when it was €1233. Experts say that this downward trend is mostly caused by too many places to stay.
Jacques Baudrier, the Deputy Mayor of Housing for Paris, told Reuters recently, “As for the [accommodation] prices, I don’t expect them to be sky-high as the market is going to regulate all this.” What he meant by this is that he thought prices would be reasonable.
Deloitte, a consulting company, said that Airbnb hosts would make more money in 2023, estimating that they would make an extra €2,000 during the Olympics. Additionally, Airbnb agreed with this opinion and said that Paris 2024 could be its most important hosting event.
Notably, the rise in lodging choices is caused by more than just traditional places to stay. Even more, people in the area are jumping at the chance to rent out their flats because it will bring in extra money. About one-third of the available Airbnb rentals in the Paris area have been booked for the Olympics, but AirDNA, a data analytics company, says that the supply is still growing. Visitors have a lot of options because between 3,000 and 3,500 new ads are added every month.
At the same time, hotels are changing how they set their prices to stay competitive with the growing Airbnb market. Frédéric Hocquard, who is the Deputy Mayor of Paris for Tourism, said that the hotel business is worried about losing customers to other places to stay.
Finding the right balance between attracting tourists and keeping prices low is very important, especially when you think about how much it costs to go to sports games and travel to the city. While hotel owners try to find this delicate balance, Paris promises to have a wide range of choices at more reasonable prices for tourists.
At a time when the city is getting ready to host the Olympics, the lodging industry shows how flexible Paris is by being able to adapt to changing tourist trends. Prices are going down because there are more goods on the market than people want. People who come to the City of Light may be happily surprised by how cheap the Olympics are.
