Liverpool Mayor aims to promote hotels which are not increasing prices for Eurovision 2023

The Mayor of Liverpool has said "it's not acceptable" for hotels to increase their prices for the dates of Eurovision.

Hotel prices surged following the announcement that the city would host the singing contest.

The cost for the dates in May skyrocketed, with some rooms being advertised for as high as £4,000 a night.

There are also reports of people who made bookings prior to the announcement being cancelled before rooms are re-published at higher prices.

The city's mayor Joanne Anderson spoke out ahead of a meeting with BBC director-general Tim Davie at the ACC Liverpool, the venue of the show.

She said: “I don’t think we should engage in that. I want to look at promoting those hotels which sign up and commit to not doing that.

"It’s not acceptable. I know hotels do it, but I don’t think it’s on, especially with the silly prices we’ve seen.

"Eurovision is a great thing for our city and we don’t want to see people exploited.”

The mayor also said there would be plans for the region's transport networks too so fans staying in other parts of the city region or further afield in the North West could travel to the contest.

As the build up to the competition gets underway Ms Anderson said they would be looking at plans which would engage everyone in the UK and Ukraine, who won this year’s contest but are unable to host due to Russia's invasion.

She said: “Everyone is feeling that excitement you get when you start big party plans.”

Liverpool City Region's Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram also expressed his disappointment at the price hikes earlier in the week and said he would be speaking to those in the hospitality sector.

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