Guest houses and hotels have been accused of price-gouging and ripping people off on their coronavirus fears.
The Oireachtas Covid Committee heard claims that hoteliers are trying to make a killing from the staycations boom with “excessive charging”.
Sinn Fein TD for Louth, Imelda Munster, brought up the issue at the Oireachtas committee.
She said: “There are issues that have been flagged up recently whereby people are quite stunned where they phone up hotels across the State to get the price of a small break, and the quotes they are being given, and particularly families, and we know that hotels have been hit, and the tourism industry in particular, but families have been hit too.
“I have an instance of quotes of €1,400 for a three-night stay – bed and breakfast. I mean you get to anywhere in Europe for a week or 10 days for that price.”
Irish Hotels Federation president Elaina Fitzgerald Kane said the group is “precluded from fixing rates or anything like that from a competitive point of view”.
She added: “There is value available across the country right now, as there always is.
“Someone who finds themselves in a zone that does not represent value to them should move on to the next alternative but there is certainly great opportunity around value.”
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