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 cum 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 that 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 than the other dates. Here you can see, on August 10 and 11, all hotel booking sites show a whopping amount for a night stay at 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 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.

As we take another example from a different city, Vishakapatanam in Andhra Pradesh which has been allocated as one of the NEET centres. The hotel is priced at Rs 5,744 for the date August 10, 2024.

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

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 keep 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 whopping amount to travel, book flights and stay as well. Students seek authorities’ attention considering climate change, transportation difficulties and other kerfuffle.

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.

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