A group of Taylor Swift fans from the US have been “forced” to stay in Dundee after a hotel room blunder left them without accommodation.
Tracey Rennie, 58, from Virginia booked tickets for her superfan daughter in Edinburgh to see the Love Story star as the concert cost half as much as it would in America.
The 58-year-old mum thought she had accommodation sorted in West Lothian but has now had to book five different hotels after their hotel booking was cancelled with only weeks to go.
Left scrambling around for somewhere to stay and with most places filling up fast, the family face spending one night 60 miles away in Dundee.
The mum told Edinburgh Live: “My daughter and I are huge Taylor Swift fans! We booked in Edinburgh because my husband attended Edinburgh University and we are familiar with the area. We could not get tickets in the US because of the exorbitant cost – if you could even get a ticket. When she was on tour last year, we were on vacation in Italy and missed her then as well. This will be our first time seeing her in concert!”
She continued: “So we had the entire five nights in Scotland at a Vrbo in Broxburn. I booked this in November 2023 and then 37 days from when we were to arrive (June 4), they cancelled on us saying they couldn’t get a licence. They should have had a licence in my opinion before listing it to rent. The charge for the Vrbo was £1,300, but they did kindly give me an additional £468 to make up the cost of new bookings.”
For the night of the concert, the family are staying near the airport.
Tracey said: “An airport hotel charged us £1,100 for just one night! Now we have a different hotel for every night we are there.”
The family have been now forced to look out of the city centre – in South Queensferry, Burnt Island, and even Dundee.
She said: “The Vrbo management company of course was sorry. But, that doesn’t count for much when you have expensive concert tickets and no place to stay.”
But despite the outlay, the tickets were still half of what she would be paying back in America.
She explained: “The tickets for Taylor Swift were probably half of what I would have paid at home. I don’t have any exact numbers, but I probably would have paid a lot more than half in all honesty. Our tickets in Edinburgh were £600, and they are not VIP tickets, they are on the pitch though.”
The hotels’ cost is just over £1,800 and comes with the added stress of lugging their bags around most days as check-out is mostly 10am and check-in mostly 4pm onwards.
The Vrbo accommodation Tracey booked originally was £1,300 and was a two-bedroom flat with a kitchen.
Vrbo has been contacted for comment.
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