Taylor Swift fans have been left angry after a Dublin hotel cancelled their bookings for the Aviva Stadium dates next year.
The gigs for June 28 and 29, 2024 were announced last month and many fans booked rooms at Dublin hotels right away as they knew demand would be high. However, many who booked at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Dublin 8 have since been let down by the hotel, who say they cancelled reservations due to "significant overbooking".
Niall Healy booked a room for June 28, 2024 at the hotel for €265 as soon as the concerts was announced, as he plans to bring his daughter to the gig.
"I booked a room with this hotel through booking.com as soon as I heard the concert announced," he told Dublin Live. "My 12-year-old daughter is a fan of Swift and I made a booking on the 20th June for €265 and received confirmation of the same.
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"Yesterday evening I was contacted by booking.com via e-mail to inform me my booking was cancelled. I contacted the hotel directly via e-mail and their reservation agent basically fobbed me off."
Niall emailed the hotel seeking further explanation for why his booking was cancelled. In response, the hotel said a "system error" affected over 800 bookings. They denied that the issue was due to cost or revenue and said it was a "serious overbooking situation".
Niall said: "I've had to rebook for €500 (at another hotel). I don't think this Radisson should be taking bookings if they've no intention of honouring them. End of the day I'm €235 out of pocket when I could have got somewhere cheaper at the time of booking."
Aoife Cheung also booked a room at the Radisson Blu for the 28 June 2024. She was contacted by the hotel yesterday notifying her that her booking was cancelled.
She told Dublin Live that she booked a room five minutes after the gigs were announced. "I booked it so quick, fast enough. Software like booking.com wouldn't allow 800 extra rooms to be booked."
Many others have flocked to social media to flag similar issues with their bookings at the hotel. One wrote on Twitter: "The same thing has happened to me; booking cancelled for Saturday night with no explanation."
Another wrote: "I didn't even get the decency of a call back I got a reply via email almost a copy of another persons email from hotel reservations. They have confirmed they will not accommodate my booking. They have had our bookings, info, card details for nearly two weeks now, unbelievable."
In a statement to RTE Liveline, the Radisson Blu Hotel said: "On the 20 June 2023, our hotel bedroom booking system experienced an operational system error which resulted in a significant overbooking of bedrooms for the 28 and 29 of June 2024.
"Hotel management together with our booking system service provider are currently urgently investigating the reasons why this may have occurred.
"In the meantime, and pending the result of our ongoing investigations, we express our deep regret that this has occurred and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
"The third party booking platform provider has indicated to us directly that their customer service team will arrange to handle all booking cancellations associated with this overbooking incident in a prompt manner."
Dublin Live has contacted the Radisson Blu Hotel directly for comment.
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