Blog: So 24 hours after the date was announced, weeks before the invites go out and five months before the wedding takes place, I started what should have been a ten-minute job to book a hotel room in the Westminster area for the night of April 29 next year. Just in case, you understand, writes Royal Correspondent Shirley Tart.

I went online and started with a couple where I’d previously stayed. No joy. Could have had a fortnight at any other time. But April 28? Booked up, sold out, nothing doing.

After trying another three or four hotels, I extended the radius a bit and guess what? Not one room available for the night before Prince William marries his Kate. Or at least not on the market – a bookings agency I finally spoke to admitted that a five-star emporium had refused to make rooms available for the date. From which we can only assume that by then prices will have soared. Canny or what?

Going down the list as hotel after hotel flashed up the red ‘sold’ sign, it was clear that all of those braying that nobody was going to be interested in the event, the wedding of the year, were talking through their mean little Republican hats.

However, such prejudices were very secondary right now as I pursued the elusive bed. And a couple of hours later, I finally manage to snap up what appeared to be the last vacancy for miles as half the world seemed to be booking, or trying to book, a London hotel room for the occasion.

But who were they? Potential guests of the couple? Fellow journalists? From the UK or overseas?

Who knows. But believe it or not, there is a fan base which travels from all parts of the world to every major royal occasion.
Over the years, I’ve met some of them – in particular, a lady from Canada who crosses the Atlantic at the mere hint of a wedding and at speed for a funeral. She’s easy to spot, she has bright red hair and is always near the front of the crowd. Nowadays, I know her well enough to ask how the cat is and how many frozen meals she’s left for hubby this time.

I bet she’s got one of those rooms.