The hotels at NEET PG centre cities are charging almost a lakh for a day

Social media is flooded with requests, posts, and comments as several aspirants of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) scheduled to be conducted on August 11, 2024, face a barrage of challenges. Since they claim that the exam centres are allocated in other states, the demand for hotels has surged uncontrollably as the hotels at NEET PG centre cities are charging almost a lakh for a day.

Timeline did a probe on the same and found the distressing reality as several hotels exploit the situation.

For a night stay on August 10 (the day before the NEET exam), bookings at hotels are quite expensive compared to the other dates. Here you can see, on August 10 and 11, all hotel booking sites show a whopping amount for a night stay in Anantapur city. More than a lakh rupees for a single day in the NEET centre city, even for a mediocre-non-AC hotel, shows how perilously they take advantage of it.

The same hotel was priced at Rs 1,499 when the date was changed to August 16, just a 4-day extension from the NEET exam date. Surprisingly, many hotels at different centres show ‘sold out’ when we checked on the scheduled date.

Another example is Vishakapatanam in Andhra Pradesh, which has been allocated as one of the NEET centres, where the hotel is priced at Rs 5,744 for the date August 10, 2024.

But when the date is changed to just two days after the exam (August 13), the price dropped with a Rs 2,339 difference for a day, and for another weekend, it is priced below Rs 3,500, validating that this is a deliberate move to exploit poor students.

Also Read | NEET PG Exam Centre Allotted In Kerala; Announcement On August 5

This shows that the plight of NEET aspirants is severe, as the authorities allocated the centre too far from their hometown, and on account of that, the hotel owners are using the situation by hiking room prices.

Students are pleading through various social media platforms to consider their quandary as they confront many challenges to even reach the exam centre, seeking a rescheduling of time or keeping the exam in a single shift with a single paper. 

Numerous students have been assigned centres that are geographically unknown to them, which costs a significant amount to travel, book flights, and stay as well. Students seek authorities’ attention considering climate change, transportation difficulties, and other problems.

Students were asked to choose preferred places while filling out the applications; however, they claim that they were not assigned to the selected cities, allocating different cities in lieu. This move to exploit NEET aspirants can only be described as inhuman, as they expect that the students would come up or attend this important exam, confronting all odds and unprecedented challenges.