A night in Melissa Babbage’s Canberra home will rise from $271 to $850,000 today.

The price hike was necessary after Babbage’s husband – Treasurer Joe Hockey – was ordered to pay 85% of his own legal costs for his defamation case against media outlet Fairfax.

“Yes it’s a bit of an increase, but it’s not cheap running a hospitality business these days, so I think it’s fair enough,” Mr Hockey said today, adding, “It’s still great value at $850,000 a night”.

There were no TripAdvisor reviews available of the tax-payer funded hotel.

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