Airport.ca the travel blog

MAR

Beijing Olympics Travel: Book Now Or Miss Out

Time is quickly running out if you still have aspirations of attending the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. We are now just a few months away from the opening ceremonies and the vast majority of local hotels are fully booked. With scarcity becoming a real issue, hotel prices in Beijing have climbed to 400-1000% increases in average room rates. To give you some perspective on this, there are over 800 hotels in Beijing, and there is rampant speculation that only 20 hotels currently have space available during the Olympics. Needless to say, if you are thinking of making the trip - stop thinking and start booking!

The few hotels with vacancies are charging astronomical rates. The Renaissance Beijing Hotel, in the Chaoyang district near several Olympic sites, including the Beach Volleyball Ground, is asking 8,000 yuan a night (about $1,095 at 7.3 yuan to the dollar) for the remaining Club Floor deluxe rooms, with a minimum booking of 18 nights; the normal rates are 1,600 to 2,200 yuan. Even the 430-room Best Western OL Stadium Hotel, hardly luxurious, is charging well over $500 a night.

Your best bet to find hotel space and tickets is to go through a tour company that specializes in Olympic travel. These companies typically buy up space in bulk and resell it, and they are likely the last bastion of hope for those last-minute planners.

A Canadian tour company called Roadtrips, Inc. based in Winnipeg, Manitoba still has packages available with hotel rooms and tickets to the opening ceremonies. But again, you need to move quickly at this point or you will truly find yourself out of options.

"There are options for essentially everything," said Duane Penner, vice president of sales for Roadtrips. Still, he added, hotel and ticket choices are limited, so you might not get a room with a view, or 10 contiguous seats to the men's basketball final. But seats are available for those "willing to sit in twos," he said.