Ukraine hotels booked up for Euro 2012

Ukraine's hotels are almost completely booked up for Euro 2012, market websites said Tuesday. The prices on the few rooms remaining have risen between three- and tenfold compared with the usual rates for the dates of the tournament, June 8 to July 1, according to the booking.com site. "We have no rooms left for June," said an assistant at the Shakhtar Plaza hotel, which stands a few hundred meters away from the Donbass Arena, the host venue for one of the semifinals. The assistant spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment. Rooms in three-star hotels in Kiev, where the final will be played, are going for around 500 euros per night, while only two rooms appeared to be available in all of the city's four- and five-star hotels. Those rates have skyrocketed to $2,500 from a season average of $446, according to the website. The cost of renting private apartments, rooms in hostels and student dormitories has also increased considerably, a straw poll conducted by RIA Novosti found. Single-bedroom apartments in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lviv are going for an average of 400 dollars a night where before they would fetch only a little more a month. The high rates on accommodation have even affected the 14 visiting national teams: Aside from host nation Ukraine, only Sweden and France will be based in the country, with all other 13 teams choosing co-host Poland. UEFA has already expressed its concern over the rates, saying they will repel foreign guests. The Ukrainian government promised to try to stabilize the price level.