FIRST it was tickets, now companies looking to cash in on Royal Ascot at York are auctioning off hotel packages for the star-studded event.

A company has used internet auction website ebay to advertise a five-night package at a city four-star hotel for the festival of horse racing and pageantry next June.

But, like the rental market, the package - which includes VIP champagne breakfast, car parking and "optional" dining in the hotel restaurant - comes at a price.

It seems racegoers are not exactly fighting each other off to stump up the opening bid of £4,650. The auction, which was ending today and offered by Parkland Trading Company, had received no bids as the Evening Press was published.

Last month, the Press reported how York householders were told to "get real".

Andrew Lindsay, president of York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said it was "completely unrealistic" to think that homeowners in the city were going to rent out their homes at top prices to racegoers.

We also revealed that city hotel rooms for Royal Ascot week - June 14 to June 18 - were still in plentiful supply. Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, said it had been booking people in Leeds, Harrogate and Pickering because room prices were more reasonable.

The price of the hotel package featured on ebay, which includes "VAT service and sales tax", is being advertised as a "special package price" for two people for five nights.

The hotel, which is said to overlook the racecourse, also offers a private walled garden and a helipad for the racing globetrotter.

At the Marriott Hotel, which is next to the racecourse, manager Craig Ewan said a five-night package in the four-star hotel was priced at £2,700.

He said some rooms at the hotel had been sold to travel agents and companies, who would then resell the packages, but he did not know whether it was his hotel that featured in the ebay auction.

The Marriott package offers bed and breakfast and two dinners.

A York Tourism Bureau spokeswoman said: "Bookings for Royal Ascot are going very well, but there are still some rooms to be had in York."

Updated: 10:12 Saturday, December 18, 2004