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Hotels have been accused of profiteering with rooms near Heathrow Airport costing £650 on Friday as hundreds of passengers have been left stranded by the closure of the grounding of all flights.
More than scheduled 1,300 flights to and from the airport in west London could be impacted after the airport closed as a result of a substation fire on Thursday night.
In a statement, a Heathrow spokesperson asked passengers not to travel to the airport “under any circumstances until the airport opens” – however, many will have already made the journey, and will be in the area.
Louis, a video producer who was due to fly to Dublin, accused nearby hotels of increasing their prices, with major chains charging more than £500 for accommodation on Friday night.
For the latest on the closure of Heathrow Airport – follow our blog by clicking here
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The 28-year-old, who only provided his first name, was forced to search for a new hotel in case Saturday’s rescheduled flight was cancelled again.
“They’ve actually doubled, if not, in some cases, tripled the prices of the rooms based on what’s going on, which is absolutely absurd. They’re profiting off of people’s misfortunes in this. I don’t know how that’s allowed,” he said.
A search showed the cheapest room at Best Western London Heathrow Ariel Hotel was a executive double room priced at £650 for one night on Friday – the same room is £72.25 next week, 28 March.
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At Holiday Inn London – Heathrow Bath Road, the cheapest rooms – a queen standard, single standard and standard – were all priced at £541 on Friday. A week later, the rooms cost £87. The chain’s Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow T4 is sold out.
At Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, a twin guest room cost £380 on Friday. A week later it is £97.
And at Marriott’s Sheraton Skyline Hotel at London Heathrow, a deluxe guest room cost £379 on Friday night. The same room is £101 a week later. Marriott’s Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel, London Heathrow Marriott Hotel, and Sheraton Heathrow Hotel are all sold out.
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The cost of hotels has been highlighted on social media.
One person wrote on X: “Ah here we go, hotels around Heathrow jump on the rip off bandwagon!… Typical rip off Britain and they should hang their heads in shame.”
Tahir Liaqat wrote: “Insane hotel prices per night after Heathrow shutdown… hope travellers have deep pockets.” Another person wrote: “No empathy from the heathrow hotels!”.
The Independent has contacted Best Western, IHG which runs Holiday Inn, Hilton and Marriott for comment.
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Heathrow Airport, the UK’s busiest airport, was closed after the fire broke out at North Hyde substation in Hayes at 11.23pm on Thursday night. The substation is about a mile and a half away from the airport.
Although London Fire Brigade said the fie was under control at 6.28am, Heathrow announced that the airport will be closed for flights until midnight on Friday.
The issue will not only impact those planning to depart from Heathrow today with more than 100 aircraft in the air when the closure was announced.
Some flights have been diverted to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and Shannon Airport in Ireland.
The use of hotels, refunds and re-bookings will cost the aviation industry millions of pounds, consultant John Strickland told PA. “It will run into millions. You can’t quantify it yet,” he said.
“Heathrow has normally about 200,000 passengers a day, so it’s a massive impact in lost revenues and disruption costs, primarily for the airlines (because of) all the follow-on costs involved in putting people in hotels, refunds, re-bookings etc.”
Hillingdon Council said on Friday it was assisting 12 people with hotel accommodation until it is safe to return home.
