70% of Meath hotel, B&B beds already booked for Solheim Cup

With just 25 weeks to go to the staging of the Solheim Cup golf competition at Killeen Castle in September, 70 per cent of the available accommodation in Meath has already been booked at "normal accommodation rates", Meath County Council and tourism interests in the county said this week. The event's attendance figures could match those at the last Solheim Cup in Illinois in the United States in 2006 when 120,000 fans turned out, providing a huge boost to the local and national economy. However, a prominent member of the co-ordinating committee - county council official Kevin Stewart - said that he was confident that the "rip-off factor" in evidence when the Ryder Cup was staged in Ireland in 2006 would be missing from the Solheim Cup in 2011. Up to 1,400 beds in hotels, bed and breakfast establishments, and self-catering hostles, are available throughout the county and Mr Stewart said that of the 70 per cent booked up so far, he could find no evidence of the charging of high rents. "We want people to have a good experience of their visit to the Solheim Cup. Failte Ireland and Meath Tourism has a charter for the trade in relation to the pricing of accommodation and services. The trade has agreed with us that normal rates would be charged. There would be no bumping up of prices. Certainly, from what I have seen of the bookings already made, people have stuck to the charter," Mr Stewart said. "The accommodation providers recognise that there is an opportunity here but they also recognise that people will be looking for value. The other kind of charging can be counter-productive," he said. Advertisements placed by accommodation providers not registered to Meath Tourism are offering accommodation (individual houses and apartments) ranging from €9,000 in some cases to €3,000 for the duration of the three-day event. They all emphasise their relative proximity to Killeen Castle and to the amenities in the towns and villages around them. Mr Stewart, who is director of economic development and innovation with Meath County Council, said that the local task was to fill the 1,400 beds available in Meath and he said they were having huge success in meeting targets. To have 70 per cent of the accommodation booked at this stage in advance of the event from 23rd to 25th September was a huge achievement, he said. Meath Tourism officer Michelle Whelan said that council and tourism interests in Meath were confident that the remaining available accommodation of 30 per cent would be filled up. "We are getting queries on a daily basis. We are also carrying out a weekly survey of all the accommodation providers registered with us to see how the bookings are going. We are very confident that all the accommodation available in the county will be filled up at normal accommodation prices," she said. The Solheim Cup event drew 120,000 fans when it was staged at the Sugar Grove golf complex in Illinois in 2009. Organisers in Ireland are hoping to surpass that number. Tourism and economic interests are confident this can happen.