One hotelier says if people can afford tickets to see Garth Brooks, they can afford hotel prices that go with it.
Lorraine Sweeney was speaking amid concerns over higher prices for accommodation during big events.
Brooks will play five dates at Dublin's Croke Park from September 9th. This will be the only European venue he will play this year.
Lorraine told The Pat Kenny Show people should have booked earlier.
"It is driven by market forces: if the people had booked the rooms as soon as they booked the tickets, it's very likely that they wouldn't be paying those kind of prices.
"So late availability is higher price - that's market forces, and I'm sorry to say that that's what happens everywhere.
"What I would say about the Garth Brooks concert is yes, this is a market forces issue without any doubt.
"And honestly if you can afford the tickets to Garth Brooks, you can afford to pay for the hotel room nearby".
Michael Kilcoyne is chairperson of the Consumers' Association of Ireland.
He says these prices need to be brought under control.
"I have to scratch my head at times and say to myself: 'How much money is enough for the hotel industry?'
"People are struggling in this country - we know for a fact with the prices of petrol and diesel, people can't rent accommodation to live in.
"And yet we see the hotel industry charging the prices that's been charged, particularly in the cities.
"[These are] many multiples of what the prices were a couple of years ago.
"It seems really strange to me that this industry - almost without exception - in areas around where there's big events jack up the prices to almost the same price.
"I have to just wonder at times, what's the Competition and Consumer Protection Authority doing that they're not looking into this?
"We're now one of the most expensive cities in the world, in Dublin, for hotel prices.
"And it is going to have a major effect on tourism - and we know that the tourism figures into Ireland this year they're lower than they have been in the past.
"And it's not just the hotels: look at the price of renting a car".
