Galway hotels see up to 38 per cent price jump on St. Patrick’s Day

By Valerie McHugh

Galway hotels have a 38.6 per cent average price increase on 16 March compared to the 17 March.

That’s according to a new study by Preply which ranked Galway second nationwide for price hikes over the St. Patrick’s Day period.

The study examined Booking.com hotel prices across the 10 biggest cities in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) during the holiday.

In response to the latest figures, the Irish Hotels Federation is advising people visiting Galway this St. Patrick’s Day to contact hotels directly, where lower prices may be available.

The organisation said: “The last availability rates represent a tiny fraction of all rooms in Galway and are in no way reflective of the value that has been available to Irish consumers and overseas visitors.

“Understandably the low level of availability of rooms will impact decisions made by visitors, and some people may decide to stay further out from Galway city centre. We would encourage people who have yet to book to also consider contacting hotels directly where there may be better value available than via booking engines.

“Galway is experiencing a high level of demand for St Patricks weekend. Visitors staying in hotels on these dates will have booked their accommodation weeks if not months in advance, and these rooms would have been sold at much lower rates than any last availability rates.”

Former Mayor of Galway: “It’s worrying.”

Speaking in response to the figures, Cllr Niall McNelis, the former Mayor of Galway and the former Labour Party Spokesperson for Tourism said that hotels should be wary that they “don’t kill the golden goose.”

Cllr McNelis said: “It’s a ‘supply and demand’ problem during a record tourist season like St. Patrick’s Day weekend. We have a fabulous product in Galway city, I’d love to be a visitor here for the first time. We need to be careful not to overprice ourselves.”

Cllr McNelis said the extra money made over the St. Patrick’s Day period should go towards an increase in staff wages.

“Some hotels in the city are excellent employers, but others are not as good. Some are often looking for staff and paying their workers minimum wage.

“Hotels were well looked after during the pandemic and they repeatedly said that the 9 per cent hospitality and VAT rate needed to be kept into the future – and now this is what they are doing.

“I am not in favour of dramatic rises like this. We have kept the VAT rate in place.”

Galway hotels versus American hotels

The study also compared this data with hotel prices across the 25 biggest cities in the United States on the same days.

According to these results, Galway has the third highest price hike over the holiday with Philadelphia in Pennsylvania the only American city to top it with a 51.2 per cent spike.

The United States are the biggest celebrators of St. Patrick’s Day in the world outside of Ireland.

Placing sixth on the list overall, Chicago is known for dyeing its river green in celebration of the holiday.

It also has the second largest parade in the country, with New York City taking the top spot.