Beijing offers cheaper hotel rooms
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-14 08:53
Olympic guests checking into Beijing hotels for the 2008 Games will pay much
less for their rooms than participants at Athens in 2004.
Organisers
yesterday promised that the city's large number of hotels meant room prices
would be kept at a reasonable level.
"As Beijing has enough hotels,
prices are sure to be lower," said Xiang Ping, vice-director of the Games
Services Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the
XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
The average price for a five-star hotel room will
be US$353, while that for four-star and three-star hotel rooms will be US$272
and US$176 respectively. This compares to prices of around 500 euros (US$628.9)
for a five-star room during the 2004 Athens Olympics.
"As we promised in
our Olympic bid, the highest price for a standard room for accredited
participants will be no higher than US$370," Xiang told China
Daily.
According to Xiang, up to now BOCOG has signed services contracts
with 112 hotels in Beijing including 38 five-star, 40 four-star and 34
three-star hotels.
Together with the Olympic Village, the Athletes'
Village and the Media Village, these hotels will accommodate 50,000 accredited
athletes, journalists, officials and sponsors.
"The prices are based on
quotes from all the hotels in 2005 and 2006, the hotel price increase rate in
Beijing and its consumer price index," Xiang said, adding that the prices will
be only a little bit higher than the present charges.
As for prices for
tourists and spectators, Xiang said she hoped they would be similar to the
contracted hotels' rates.
But tourism officials said hotels have the
right to decide their own prices. "We suggest hotels set their prices according
to market demand," said an official from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of
Tourism. "We won't arbitrarily set the prices."
In Athens during the
2004 Games, hotel prices rocketed, putting off many potential sports
fans.
The Beijing Tourism Administration estimates that during the
2008 Games, Beijing will receive 500,000 to 550,000 overseas tourists and
spectators, while the number of domestic visitors will reach 2.58
million.
According to statistics from the China National Tourism
Administration, about 55 million overseas visitors came to China last
year.
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