Christopher

I suspect too that the high prices are in part a triumph of hope over experience. I remember, for example, in the months before the solar eclipse in 1999, some hotels in Cornwall were charging ridiculously high rates: these rates had to come down in many cases because people simply weren't paying them.

In the mean time, though, hotels lost a lot of business, some of it ongoing, annual business – the eclipse was in August and lots of families and also some retired people take an annual summer holiday or break in that part of the country. Some, I know, found other places that they're still visiting each summer...

That scenario won't play out in London, of course, but I do sometimes wonder at the wisdom of pushing prices sky-high because of a one-off event.