Beijing hotels slash rates

2008-07-22 14:18

Beijing - Hotels in Beijing are slashing room rates for next month's Olympics after tighter security - among other measures - dashed an expected windfall of visitors, hotels and travel industry executives said on Tuesday.

Fan Runjun, an employee of the press department of popular travel website Ctrip.com, said many two- to four-star hotels have reduced prices by 10% to 20% compared to May and June. Some have slashed rates by as much as 30%, said Fan, whose site lists about 500 hotels in its English-language section.

The usual pre-Olympic festive atmosphere host cities experience has not hit Beijing yet, with some hotels feeling empty and listless. In June, the number of visitors to Beijing, including overseas and domestic, declined by 19.9% from a year earlier, according to the Beijing Tourism Authority.

Now average room prices in three-star hotels are down to 400 yuan per night from 700 yuan in previous months, the China Daily newspaper said on Tuesday. Four-star hotels have dropped to about 800 yuan a night, from 1 500 yuan it said.

Beijing was expecting 500 000 foreign guests for the August 8-24 Olympics, but has been scaling back that estimate. Some people have been scared off by high prices, while others have had trouble getting visas.

China has ratcheted up security for the games, tightening visa rules even for foreign travellers who hold Olympics tickets. Multiple-entry visas have also been restricted, causing a drop in business travel.

The government has said the games are a target of terrorism, and has reported breaking up plots to attack the games by Islamic radicals in the western province of Xinjiang. In a show of force, China's military has stationed a ground-to-air missile battery just 273m from one Beijing Olympic venue.

Luo Qiong, a public relations manager at the Xiao Xiang Hotel, a three-star hotel near the Temple of Heaven in southern Beijing, said they cut prices by 20% a few days ago.

She said the drop in the number of guests was caused by the visa restrictions and the fact many exhibitions moved to other cities in China.

"As a result of all that, our occupancy isn't as good as we expected. And I don't think things will get any better even with the rate cut," she said.

A man surnamed Wu from the China Hotel Management Association, who was unwilling to give his full name or position as is common in China, said most three-star hotels or below were cutting prices because occupancy rates were not as high as expected.

"Now that they found there are not enough guests booking their rooms, they have to cut their prices," he said.

Most Olympic hotels that have been approved by the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee are four- or five- star, Wu said, and their rooms have already been booked. Those hotels cater to Olympic officials, sponsors and national Olympic delegations. Their prices were set last year, by negotiation, rather than by market demand, he said.

- AP