petey

SCUM!



Hotels 'cash in' on bomb attacks



Thousands of commuters chose to walk for hours to reach home

Hundreds of commuters spent Thursday night stranded in London and some have accused hoteliers of cashing in on the crisis in the capital.

Prices at a number of London's hotels increased by more than double on Thursday night, the BBC has learned.

Lastminute.com was warning customers about the price rises two hours after the first blast.

A Trading Standards Institute spokesman said profiteering after an act of terrorism was reprehensible.

With the transport networks down and no way of returning home, one businessman from Manchester told the BBC he had paid £250 for an £80 room.

Flatcapdriver

Name and shame them.

Plucking Pheasants

So much for community spirit

Jap2Scrap

This is the true face of the British public. Forget all that nonsense about "They'll never get us down.." While there are people like this in our country we can claim to be no more compassionate than those responsible. This sickens me

pslewis

They should be named NATIONALLY and the Hotels ignored by everyone - we CAN bring them down!

Pete

unclebuck

This is the 'our way of life' that Blair says is so important to us.

Flatcapdriver

Absolute bollocks. How can you claim this is the true face of the British public when there was a hell of a lot of compassion around yesterday. People offering free lifts to stranded Londoners and the fantastic efforts of the emergency services were all occurring and just because of some profiteering you leap to this extraordinary generalisation.

There's a lot of people on here who need to think things through before posting such crap.

Nexuas

If they are named then people will avoid them. Remeber how quickly the garage in London that was chargeing £2.00 a litre during the petrol crisis closed afterwards. People don't let these things go that easily!!!

petey

i rode the tube today central line and then the victoria line and there was a near on perfect service! unbelieveable considering the circumstances..
I too managed to walk from victoria to livvie street and get a train out at about half 4. I was quite lucky i'd admit but it must be terrible for the people and familys directly envolved! the cell network was hardly useable!!!

davyboy

Yep, that Blairs fault too.

moses

sick *******s if it was them or their own relatives they would have never done that the sick c;unts

Patt@firstime

*cough* I agree with Pete *cough*

InvisibleMan

what a nonce...

Jerome

IIRC there was a similar thing with people selling water in NY after 9/11. Utterly shameful.

Hanley

Wasn't it Starbucks who were charging for water during the chaos of 9/11?

The hotels should be named and they should be avoided nationally.

They would have to close after 4 weeks

David Lock

Very poor show indeed. A decent hotel would have offered standard rates and a free bottle of wine with their meal to cheer people up.

Hope a Sunday Newspaper publishes a list under AVOID THE RIP-OFF HOTELS header.

Now during the Olympics - that's different

petey

you'd thought that the more business would have been enough!!

Jap2Scrap

Maybe the wrong phrase but underlying the niceties was **** like this. No doubt there were some taxi drivers making good on the lack of public transport too. My point is that for all the "We'll all stick together and ride this out..." headlines there is always the element of "... but we'll stab you in the back while we do it.."

Cyberevo

iTrader: (1)

Community spirit and London do not go hand in hand, I personally can't stand most of the stuck up toffee nosed 'we're better than you' $hitty London attitude ******

wacky.banana

Guys,

Why are you surprised by this? This is the human condition, its the way some of us are.

Ironically when Geldoff was frothing at the bit about people selling on live8 tickets for a fast buck Scoobynet contributors called him a tosser and intimated that selling tickets was good enterprise and that Gedoff should **** off..

Why the change of heart for Hotels then?

WB

drumsterphil

iTrader: (1)

Cos people who couldn't get out of london were effectively stranded with little option to try for a hotel room.

Don't remember the same restriction attending a Live8 gig...........

jonc

..but its still capitalising on peoples misfortunes.

drumsterphil

iTrader: (1)

The only misfortune with the Live8 gig was if you wanted to attend and couldn't because you did not receive an allocated ticket. The aim of the concert was immaterial IMO as it does not physically effect anyone attending a concert as to their ability to get there and leave.

Quite a different matter to people who cannot leave a place through no fault of their own.

jonc

The whole point of the Live8 gig was to hightlight the poverty that people are suffereing in Africa and other areas around the world. A lot of people wanted to show their support by attending Live8, others obtained tickets purely to sell them to make money.

Would you say it was OK if the mayor lined his coffers by charging people who want to sign the book of condolences at London's City hall for those who were directly affected by this attrocity? because its amounts to the same thing.

drumsterphil

iTrader: (1)

I see what you are saying, but the big difference is that nobody pointed a gun to your head and said you had to attend a Live 8 gig and in doing so you had to pay for the ticket - attending the concert was of your own free will.

People who couldn't get out of London had NO choice but to pay higher levies if they wanted somewhere to stay (I didn't agree with charging for Live8 tickets either but I do think it's an important distinction between the two).

Aaron C. Reskew

Supply and demand me old china.
Get off your high horse and come and live in the real world for a bit. Cash is king and if somebody can earn a little bit extra so what?

David Lock

Well I live in the real world and there are some things that are acceptable and some not. Ripping off people that were stranded like that is not acceptable. Old ladies get mugged in the real world but it doesn't make it right. I really hope they get their comeuppance (how the hell do you spell that

wacky.banana

And that's what capitalism is all about. Its not about making value judgements that sit easy with people when it suits them. There's no morality about capitalism or making money, Its about supply and demand.That's the system we live in.

Yesterday hoteliers saw an opportunity for making money so they took it. We should not confuse that with taking a moral stance I'm afraid, no matter that I disagree with making money off people's backs in this way.

WB

Suresh

When I saw the thread title I thought that there was going to be a benefit concert, so some pop stars could boost their flagging album sales.

Instead I find that some hotels have been effectively selling their rooms to the highest bidder. Easyjet has a business model based around this. If your need is great, you will be prepared to pay, if not maybe a 3 hour walk home - which leaves the room free for someone who would have a six hour walk and would be "happy" to pay more. Tab will probably be picked up by the guest's company anyway. In any case the hotel would have extra costs at 100% occupancy, such as staff overtime and taxis.

Did taxi fares mysteriously go up too?

Suresh

pslewis

Business etiquette should NOT be abandoned when there is a possibility to make money from someone elses misery!!

Yes, you KNOW you can charge £1000 for the pain-killer you have in your pocket as a child lies screaming in agony and the parents will pay .................. that doesn't mean it's right and it doesn't mean it's understandable!!!

I would hope that 99% of people would give the pill freely!!

And that is the point of this post .... yes, up your charges for rooms when the Grand Prix is on and you happen to own a hotel within walking distance of the circuit ...

BUT, do NOT profit out of other human beings loss and pain and distress!!

Thats the Tory way, and that way has been assigned to the dustbin!!

Pete