At the end of June, the Safari Zone of Pokémon GO takes place in Dortmund. Already, all hotels in Dortmund are fully booked. The Pokémon players even paid significantly increased prices for the rooms.
Only a few days remain until a special Pokémon GO event takes place in Dortmund. Trainers can encounter the regional Pokémon Corasonn and other special monsters during the event. Meanwhile, all hotels in Dortmund are already fully booked. Spaces are also scarce in the surrounding areas.
Surprise for the hoteliers
As reported by RuhrNachrichten, practically every one of the about 7500 hotel beds in Dortmund is occupied on the last weekend of June. Even in the surroundings of Lünen, Castrop-Rauxel, and Bochum, one must hurry if they still want to snatch a room.
Why the sudden rush? The reason is the Safari Zone in Pokémon GO. This is a special event that attracts trainers with rare Pokémon. On June 30 and July 1, 2018, special Pokémon like Corasonn can be found in Dortmund, which are otherwise not available in the wild in Germany. The hearts of collectors beat faster here, and they want to come to Dortmund.
Hoteliers do not know what is happening. Shortly after the Pokémon GO developers announced the event in Dortmund, hoteliers were inundated with an extraordinary number of calls. They had no idea what was happening.
The managing director of Dortmund Tourism, Matthias Rothermund, speaks of the “strongest weekend demand for hotel rooms in at least two years.” Although rooms can be scarce during larger trade fairs, so many leisure guests are extremely unusual.
Not just Pokémon players: As RuhrNachrichten reports, the large cultural event “Extraschicht” is also taking place that weekend, which goes through the Ruhr area. However, these are rather visitors from the region, less from all over Germany or abroad.
When looking at the hotel overview on booking.com, you can see that most hotels in Dortmund are full. Only a few rooms are still available.
Hotels cash in on the boom, drastically raise prices
The large influx led some hotels to raise their room prices. And not just a little. The Ashok Hotel in Dortmund offers a room for 2 adults according to Tripadvisor.com for about 48€ on a weekend (one night). Today (June 7 – 2:30 PM), the price on booking.com is 322.50€ for a night on the weekend of the Pokémon Safari – that is nearly 570% above the usual price.
Other hotels, like the Vienna House Easy in Castrop Rauxel, also increased their prices. “Within a week, all 84 rooms were gone, it went quickly. When we found out it was related to Pokémon, we quickly raised the prices,” explains receptionist Franziska Wejer to RuhrNachrichten.
This increase is viewed negatively by the head of Dortmund Tourism. On average, a night in a Dortmund hotel room costs 81€, he says. For special events, there is usually a surcharge of 10 to 30 percent. “However, there are hoteliers who are offering their last rooms at astronomical prices. We do not approve of that,” explains Rothemund.
Those who do not want to pay so much for a room are looking around in the vicinity. Essen is only about half an hour away by train and still has many hotels available.
We have summarized the most important information about the Pokémon GO Safari Zone in Dortmund for you
