The price is not right – staycation four times more expensive than going abroad

Simon Calder offers advice on booking staycations for 2021

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The pandemic has hit Britons’ wallets. Even as the country goes back to a semblance of normal, pre-pandemic prices are hard to find.

It has now been revealed that self-catered accommodation in the UK is costing 40 percent more this summer than in 2019.

The rise in price is the equivalent of £300 more for a week in August.

The study was conducted by Which? with BBC Panorama, using data from AirDNA, which looks at websites such as Airbnb and Vrbo.

In 2019, it cost £109 a night for two people in Brighton.

READ MORE: Venice set to charge Britons up to €10 to visit the city

The price is now £206, or 89 percent more.

Cleaning and sanitation costs are now higher due to the pandemic.

But a woman interviewed by BBC also blamed the platforms.

She said: “If you’re booking by third-party advertising website, they’re putting commissions on the actual end price.”

The claim was refuted by Vrbo.

The platform said it “does not set, change or influence the property prices a host chooses”.

Whatever the reason for the remarkable rise in price, Britons foot the bill.

Staycations are now more expensive than a holiday abroad.

Which? compared a stay in the UK with overseas holidays, and even factoring in flights, it may be worth it to head to the continent.

A week in Brighton was found to be £1,131, while a stay in the south of France with hotel and flights was £1,085.

Even more remarkable, a week in the Lake District was £2,424 while flights and accommodation for a week in Lake Garda, Italy, was £802.

Which? travel editor Rory Boland said: “We’re not talking about £10, we’re not talking about the cost of a meal out. We’re talking hundreds and hundreds of pounds.”

And he did not believe all of it was down to the pandemic.

He added: “When we looked at it, accommodation prices in 2019 were more expensive in the UK than they were abroad.

“So this isn’t a pandemic problem only, the pandemic has made it worse.”

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