What does an event like the Summer Olympics mean to a given city’s hospitality industry? That can be challenging, if not impossible, to measure. When Paris hosts this summer’s Olympics, it will have been 100 years since the last time the city did so. Paris in the summer is always going to be a tourist destination, Olympics or not — and this year offers both hotels and would-be visitors plenty of challenges.
Earlier this year, a study conducted by the French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir found that some hotels had literally tripled their rates to coincide with the Summer Games. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t (relative) bargains to be found; recently, Forbes reported that homeowners looking to rent out their spaces had been cutting prices dramatically. As for some of the city’s most luxe hotels, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Mark Ellwood writes that rooms remain available — as long as you have plenty of cash on hand.
Citing “insiders,” Ellwood reports that a number of high-end hotels have rooms available. Some of this may come as a result of another phenomenon: namely, that a number of hotels in the city have done away with or loosened requirements around guests’ minimum stays.
Is Paris Ready for This Summer’s Olympics?
The logistical issues could be overwhelmingAs Ellwood writes, 10 million visitors are expected to make their way to Paris for the Olympics. Once the Games have wrapped up later this year, it’ll be notable to see how hotels actually did relative to their expectations. The 2022 World Cup, for instance, saw hotels relatively underattended. Then again, it’s hard to argue with the allure of Paris, especially in the summertime.
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