Lisbon, Nov. 11, 2025 (Lusa Verifica) - The Ikonik Lisboa hotel did not increase its prices by 570% during the Web Summit, as the co-founder of this technological event claims, but it is true that this and other hotels more than tripled some room rates during this week.
+++ Claim: the price per night in some Lisbon hotels reached ‘an inflation of approximately 570%’ during the week of the Web Summit +++
On Saturday, 8 November, the co-founder of the Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave, complained that some Lisbon hotels ‘let themselves be blinded by greed’ and took advantage of the initiative to ‘increase prices by more than 300%, and sometimes 500%, compared to normal November rates’.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter (https://archive.ph/CKi2U), Cosgrave said it was “understandable and reasonable” to see the “huge increase in prices due to the demand for 4-star hotels in the city centre, with occupancy rates of over 90% - 98% according to Booking.com data”, but he found it “difficult to sympathise” with the alleged tripling or even quintupling of prices.
As an example, Cosgrave highlights the Ikonik Lisboa hotel: "in the case below, for example, the price per night for a room in the week following the Web Summit at this charming 4-star hotel is around €130 per night, but during the week of the Web Summit it rises to over €700 per night. This represents inflation of around 570%."
On Monday, in response to some criticism he had received, Paddy Cosgrave reiterated that he had made it ‘clear that doubling prices was acceptable’ but that he had no sympathy for hotels that ‘increase prices by 500% and complain about demand’ (https://archive.ph/QBDgh).
He also added that the organisers of the Web Summit ‘have surveyed some international participants and around 40% are opting for Airbnb’, a result that he believes is the result of the laws of supply and demand.
+++ Facts: Paddy Cosgrave compared prices of different categories, and real increases are around 350% +++
In the publication of 8 November, Paddy Cosgrave attached two screenshots to demonstrate the alleged “inflation of approximately 570%” at the Ikonik Lisboa hotel, giving as an example the price of €2,213 for three nights, for one person, between 10 and 13 November, the days of the Web Summit, compared to just €387 for the same period of time the following week, between 17 and 20.
Once these figures have been calculated, there really is a difference of more than 570% between the week following the Web Summit and the current one. But the comparison presented is incorrect because it compares prices for two different room categories: ‘deluxe double room with river view’ for this week, versus a standard double room next week.
On Monday, Lusa Verifica no longer found exactly those values on the Booking.com platform, as they are constantly updated. Still, it was able to verify that there is no 570% increase in rooms of the same type at that hotel or in the others mentioned in another screenshot from the same publication.
For the Ikonik Lisboa, the price for three nights in a standard double room (for one person) was around €450 for the period from 17 to 20 November, while the same number of nights this week cost €1,565, i.e., almost 348% more. As for the ‘deluxe with river view’ room, three nights will cost €611 next week, while this week they cost €2,172, up 355%, but below the aforementioned 570%.
Lusa Verifica did the same kind of maths on the website of Eurostars, the company that owns the Ikonik Lisboa, where you can find slightly lower rates, and found that the prices charged this week are on average 3.45 times higher than next week, but never 5.7 times higher.
These percentage increases were similar in the other hotels covered in Cosgrave's publication, with rises of between 186% and 349%, and in others located in Parque das Nações, where the Web Summit is taking place.
At the Tivoli Oriente, for example, there is a 324% difference in a deluxe double room (from €607 next week to €1,968 this week). At the Vip Government Arts there are increases of between 303% and 351%: three nights in a standard single room costs from €349 next week, but the same room starts at €1,227 during the Web Summit.
The biggest difference was found at Parque das Nações, where another Eurostars hotel, the Eurostars Universal Lisboa, charges € 2,262 for three nights in a deluxe double room with a city view this week, dropping to €601 next week, a difference of more than 376%.
Lusa Verifica questioned Paddy Cosgrave through the Web Summit communications office, as well as the Hotusa Group, owner of the Eurostars Hotel Company, but received no replies.
Lusa Verifica assessment: False
It is false that the Ikonik Lisboa hotel increased its daily rates by 570% during the Web Summit, as Paddy Cosgrave, the co-founder of the technology summit, has claimed. Still, hotels are charging more than three times what they charge during other weeks in November, as is the case with this and other hotels in Lisbon.
LYGA/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
