Rooms sought for conference attendees All hotels in Bonn fully booked for Climate Conference

Bonn · All 9000 beds in Bonn’s hotels are fully booked during the Climate Conference in November – not a single room is still available. Where will all the conference participants stay?

The UN Climate Conference COP23, from 6 to 17 November, is fast approaching and a key issue will be where to house the approximately 25,000 visitors.

The common message from the hotel sector is that they are pretty much fully booked. Despite this, Gerrit Thiebes, General Manager of the Hotel Grand Kameha says they are still getting new booking enquiries daily. Gabriele Bugge, acting director of the Maritim Hotel Königswinter, paints the same picture. In addition to delegates, “a number of police” are also staying there. Even though November is normally a busy month, Philip Suchan, from the Ameron Hotel Königshof, is expecting during the conference period, “nearly 100 per cent on all weekdays – this wouldn’t normally be the case without the Climate Conference. The demand for hotel rooms during this period is enormous.”

It is the same picture in small, owner-operated establishments, as Friederike Sträter of the boutique hotel Villa Godesberg confirms: “We are getting new enquiries about this period almost daily but unfortunately cannot accommodate them.” They have been fully booked since the date for the conference was announced.

Conference is a huge benefit for Bonn and the region

The industry considers the conference a “huge benefit” for Bonn, as Gerrit Thiebes puts it. Philipp Suchan says: “Such large events are worth their weight in gold to Bonn. They have a long lasting effect on the location and put Bonn on the ‘international stage’ – you can hardly get better marketing.” Suchan says there is an area for development: the lack of a direct connection between the airport and the Bonn suburban rail network.

Tourismus & Congress GmbH says there are around 18,500 hotel beds available in Bonn and the Rhine-Sieg district, not including holiday apartments. They have also included the Ahr Valley, Cologne and Koblenz in their planning and “have already referred lots of visitors to these areas.” Hotel ships are to provide additional capacity. There are currently 270 beds available on the Rhine and additional shipping companies will be approached if necessary. 359 free beds have also been offered to date on “Private Host COP 23”, run by the T&C. It is not possible to say how many convention participants are still without accommodation.

Industry association says Bonn will cope well

Christoph Becker, head of the North Rhine German Hotel and Restaurant Association, is relaxed about the major event. Bonn is well set up with the WCCB and the city had already accommodated large conferences before the WCCB was built. Even though the record number of 25,000 participants presents a “huge challenge,” Becker is convinced, “It will run smoothly and without any major problems.”

A sample search using the booking site hrs.de shows there are still hotel rooms available during the conference period priced from Euro 250 per night. For two nights accommodation (from 8-10 November) in one of the large Bonn hotels you can easily expect to pay more than 1000 Euros.

(Original text: Rüdiger Franz / Translated by Kate Carey)

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