Anyone wishing to travel to Baku for the Eurovision Song Contest later this month may get a shock when they look for a hotel room, with prices shooting up as rooms become scarce in the Azeri capital.

According to German travel search engine Swoodoo, Eurovision fans can expect to pay on average 144 per cent more for a hotel room there during the contest than usual.

Azerbaijan, with just nine million inhabitants and an economy dependent on oil, won the right to host the contest by winning the event last year in Germany with love song Running Scared.

In a country not known for its tourism facilities, the lack of available hotel rooms is what is driving prices up, said Swoodoo.

“The hotel infrastructure in Baku is not comparable with western and central Europe,” said Christian Saller, CEO of Swoodoo. “Although they’ve invested a lot, they just haven’t been able to get some hotels finished in time.”

Swoodoo said that hotel rooms were available at an average price of €341 a night for the period between May 22 and 27.

That compares with an average of €140 for the weeks either side of the contest, said Swoodoo, which looked at prices from 100 operators.