An expensive Olympics by Claudia Sonea

If you want to go to the Olympics in August I recommend a large tent and finding a camp site, because the hotels will dry you out. According to China newspapers hotel rooms raise their normal prices up to 10 times and the normal prices are not that cheap either. Penny Xiang, who works on accommodations for the Beijing organizing committee related more on the subject trying to ease people's preoccupations. Xiang revealed that hotels are using a tactic to drive up rates and that is why prices for rooms during the August 8-24 games have skyrocketed. The owners want to sell the rooms at a good price but the market is not sure yet, so it is typically for Chinese to just wait and see what will happen. For the few hotels that have already signed contracts the prices were not that high. Furthermore, a rule in economy says that when the supply is higher than the demand, the price is bound to restrain, therefore because there are too many hotels in Beijing offering more rooms than requested the prices will eventually get to a more reasonable level. Beijing has 300,000 hotel rooms of which 30,000 rooms at 120 topflight hotels have been reserved by the organizing committee and held under contract for Olympic officials, sponsors and dignitaries. The organizers paid $380 a night for a standard room at a five-star hotel. The expected demand for rooms is around 250000, where as the supply is 270000. In consequence there will be still 20000 rooms remaining and people can choose from a variety of offers and the prices will downgrade regarding if indeed there will that many Olympics fans. Nevertheless, neither the organizers nor city officials would step in to set prices. A good thins it that hotels no longer require to book a room for a period of 18-20 days, it can be only five days and Beijing organizers are also holding 20,000 rooms in the Olympic and media village. The city expects 500,000 non-Chinese to visit Beijing during the 17-day games, with about 1 million domestic tourists added to the total. I advice you to wait and see or at least buy a tent you never know when it comes on handy.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20071211/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_beijing_hotels;_ylt=AnpB_zaqPSbgj4GvWg_uLses0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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