Gaya, Jan. 3: Devotees in Bodhgaya for the 10-day Kalchakra Puja are paying through their nose for accommodation this year.

Most hotels are booked to capacity and the rest are charging over the roof. Most devotees, who have arrived from the Northeast, Tibet and other countries, are forced to look for accommodation in private residences.

Psang, a devotee from Sikkim, has come with four members of his family. He had to look for a private residence in the face of an Rs 3,000-per-day hotel room. He told The Telegraph: “No hotel room is available at a reasonable rate. At this private residence, I am paying Rs 10,000 for a seven-day stay. My friend Tashi, from Tibet, has booked a 16ftx12ft room for a fortnight at Rs 40,000.”

Victorien Gonin from Paris and Julia from the south of France have been lucky to get a guesthouse but that too at four to five times the usual tariff. Last year, Julia visited Bodhgaya in the tourist season and paid Rs 300 per day at a guesthouse. This year, she is paying Rs 1,000 per day.

The general secretary of Bodhgaya Hotel Association, Sanjay Singh, however, said devotees are not being charged excess for rooms. He said: “Hoteliers are not charging excess tariff. The tour operators and the agents had booked the hotels three to four months in advance for Kalchakra. Now, they are charging extra money from the devotees.”