Hotel accused of cancelling bookings on Oasis concert nights – and relisting for higher price
A hotel chain in Manchester has been accused of cancelling bookings from customers on nights Oasis is planning to play in the city in 2025 – and relisting them for a higher price.
Sacha Lord, night time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, wrote on X last night that he’d been contacted by “several people” who were told their rooms had been cancelled by Maldron Hotels after a “computer error”.
He claimed they were later “back up for three times the price”.
Several users have replied saying they have been affected by the issue.
Oasis fan Mark Slinger, 36, who lives on the Isle of Man, told Sky News he booked a room at Maldron Hotels in Manchester city centre for 20 July – the final night of Oasis’s run of shows at Heaton Park.
He made the £90 reservation through booking.com yesterday morning when the band announced their major reunion tour.
However, he was contacted by the hotel that evening asking him to cancel the booking.
The email says: “We are writing to inform you of an issue with your booking at Maldron Hotel Manchester City Centre. Due to a technical error, you have received a confirmation for a booking that was not successfully made. Unfortunately we are unable to accommodate your booking at this time.”
It said a cancellation request had been sent, which Mark was asked to “accept promptly”.
He told Sky News he hasn’t accepted the request and “won’t be doing”. He also doesn’t believe the issue was down to a “technical error”.
“They realised they can cancel and re-sell at four times the price due to the Oasis gig,” he said.
Maldron Hotels said in a statement to the Money blog that a technical error on Monday and Tuesday led to “substantially more” rooms being booked at its two Manchester hotels than were available for the nights of the four Oasis concerts.
It said it would be unable to honour bookings made on these dates as a result, and no bookings are currently being taken while the issue is investigated.
“This is not an attempt to resell rooms at inflated prices, rather an overbooking issue due to a technical error with our booking systems,” the hotel said.
“Additionally, due to the same technical error, a small number of customers were able to book the rooms at a higher price later that evening. We will also be unable to accommodate these bookings.
“We will be honouring all bookings made prior to 26 August.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Hotels operate dynamic pricing so that rates go up along with demand – so it’s not unusual for prices to increase substantially around big events.
Yesterday, we reported that hotel prices for Oasis’s first night at Wembley were already as much as three times as expensive as the week before.
“I had a quick look at a Holiday Inn a couple of miles away the week before the concert, it’s £195 a night. The first night of the concert, it’s £594 a night,” said correspondent Matthew Thompson.
“So already people are getting on the hotel rooms even before the tickets go on sale. That gives you some sense of just how much demand there is for these tickets.”
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