I went to the Tory party conference and one thing almost ruined it entirely

It’s like Christmas for Tories. That’s how I try to explain to weirded-out mates why on earth I spend my own free time and money making sure I get to the yearly

It’s a yearly opportunity to catch up with friends from all over the country, grab the odd selfie and quick chat with political heavyweights you admire, and, let’s face it, enjoy the odd glass of wine. But, sadly, it .

Accommodation is the biggest expense – and the costs may surprise you. For the three nights and four days that it’s on, I’ve known accommodation reach in the region of £1,000, even for the most basic of rooms.

Pile on top of that your transport to get you there, the costs of Ubers to whizz you in and out of the city centre, food bills and your ticket for the actual conference itself. If you don’t buy it early, it can be around £250.

It all quickly adds up. The overall cost could certainly cover the price of an abroad getaway.

But – and this is a big but – it’s my choice to go and I’m more than happy to save up for the yearly trip. What I don’t like, however, is how unscrupulous accommodation providers can really do you over.

This year we tried to keep the costs as low as possible and booked an Airbnb as a group, with an overall cost of around £250 per person for four nights.

However in the last few days – and I would imagine it was when the hosts got wind of how much more money they could make from others keen to secure accommodation – they suddenly cancelled on us.

We weren’t the only ones. Another group of people we knew had their accommodation snatched away with just over a day to go albeit from a separate provider.

With time ticking on, desperate searching managed to result in another property to stay in. But after several hours of heading in the general direction of the city, fears quickly began to mount as many attempts at getting in touch with the new Airbnb host proved totally fruitless. And we had no address.

Eventually, just minutes before check in at 3pm, we did manage to make contact. Sadly it was beginning to all sound exceedingly shifty. Apparently the room wasn’t going to be ready until 4.30pm as the cleaner had run over.

As it tanked down in a grey and grim Birmingham, the whole thing was quickly unravelling and it felt like the entire exercise had transformed into a depressing version of Challenge Anneka.

When the host did finally disclose the address, matters were made worse when I saw the state of the bedroom itself. The bedlinen didn’t look like it had been cleared – unexpected extras of hair and crumbs were included – and a drenched towel left plopped in the centre of it.

I came back after a few hours of meeting friends at the conference centre, desperately hoping that the warm wine would have emboldened me and lowered my standards. Instead I spent an entirely sleepless night laid on towels and checked into the cheapest Travelodge on the outskirts of the city as soon as was feasibly possible the following morning. Never has a hotel bedroom felt so luxurious.

In the end the conference was fun, friends were caught up with and new ones made…and most of the break away salvaged. But I do think this practice from some unscrupulous accommodation providers – who jack up the price despite already accepting a booking as we saw in Manchester with the Oasis concerts – has to change. Even for us .

Express.co.uk has approached Airbnb for comment.