The Olympic Games in Paris, in the summer of 2024, will begin in one year. But will they be a boon for the hospitality industry in Paris and Île-de-France? The professionals wonder, some point out the risks of a “bad rumor” in case of failure… But it is already certain that prices will rise permanently.
“At the Rio Olympics in 2016, Airbnb made it possible to increase accommodation capacity. And at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, we put large ships in the port to cover ad hoc accommodation needs, ”he points out.
Vincent Bollaert, France director of Knight Frank real estate, points out that in terms of “hotel density, Paris and its region are superior to New York and are very well positioned compared to London.”
The Île-de-France hotel park has some 2,100 establishments and 124,000 rooms and “has attracted 1,300 million euros of investment, an increase of +35% compared to 2019, before the health crisis,” says Vincent Bollaert. “Before the Olympic Games, about 150 new establishments were going to be built, or 5,000 additional rooms, and a lot has already been delivered,” reports the expert.
A different clientele
So, will the event be beneficial for the sector in the short term? The professionals wonder. Because “part of the usual clientele of the capital should not come: they are not interested in being among the crowd of the Olympic Games”, emphasizes Vanguélis Panayotis.
This absence of the classic tourist clientele, particularly “high-end”, could detract from the benefits of the tourism sector of the event.
“It can even be extremely negative if what emerges from the Games is negative communication about the destination,” in the event of organizational failures, strikes or demonstrations, explains Didier Arino, general manager of the consultancy Protourisme. “But it can also be a pretty image” if all goes well.
In the longer term, this “exceptional promotional window” that will be the Olympic Games in Paris should attract more tourists from the following year, professionals believe.
But the positive contribution, according to Didier Arino, will come more “from transformation, urban development, the creation of infrastructures that will later be used, than from the exclusive tourist function of the Olympic Games.”
Prices revised up due to inflation?
For now, hoteliers hope to take advantage of it. Some went a long way to rent their rooms to agencies and partners rather than to individuals: this is the case of Edgar Suites, which has some 500 “boutique” aparthotels (with careful decoration), mainly in Paris.
As of May 2023, Edgar Suites had rented 60% of its park for the period of the Olympic Games, its co-founder Grégoire Benoit explained to AFP:
The prices of the Olympics “were negotiated before the Covid. Except that we are not at all in the same context, with high inflation: they should be discussed again to prevent hoteliers from refusing to apply the negotiated rates and waiting until the last minute to sell their rooms at a much higher price”, warns Vanguélis Panayotis.
And on private rental platforms such as Airbnb, one of the main sponsors of the competition, some rental companies will be tempted to make very significant price increases.
Already accused of driving property prices up and depleting long-term rental stock, Airbnb tried to minimize this nascent controversy by commissioning a study from Deloitte: published in April, it forecast a “realistic price increase” of 85%, comparable to hotel prices during the London Olympics.
Source: BFM TV
