Plenty of hotel rooms available for Olympics as rates fall
With just 11 days to go before the start of the Olympic Games, hotel prices across the capital are gradually falling, indicating there are still plenty of rooms available.
The average price for a bedroom throughout the games, which run from 27 July to 12 August, is currently £189, according to online reservations site TravelClick. This represents a 70% increase in average daily rate (ADR) in comparison to the same period last year. Just earlier today, TravelClick reported the average room price in the capital during the Olympics was £193.30.
Committed occupancy across London for the duration of the Olympics currently stands at 77%, with the busiest day being Saturday 4 August, the date of the heptathlon finals in the athletics stadium and the women's 50m freestyle and men's 1,500m freestyle finals in the swimming pool, when occupancy stands at 82.3%.
Meanwhile, a report from online review site TripAdvisor says the largest increase in room prices (69%) is found in hotels with a London E postcode - home of the Olympic Park. Here the average cost of a room is £309 per night.
Hotels in the N postcode have seen the second-biggest rise in room prices, although, according to TripAdvisor, rooms in this area are the cheapest in London during the Olympics, with the average room costing £165 per room per night.
Another online booking site, HRS Portal, is more cautious about the increase in room prices, reporting an increase of only 24.7% above the average rates and a wide range of availability.
"The closer we get to the Olympic Games, the more hotels are contacting HRS with vacancies", says HRS chief executive Tobias Ragge. "Many hotels originally tried to offer their room quotas during the Olympics at many times the normal rate, but with the start of the games just two weeks away, there are still numerous vacancies and many hotels are now lowering their room rates."
HRS data, which is gathered from over 800 London hotels represented on its website, shows that average room rate during the games is £159.29. It also indicates that, following the Olympics, from 13 to 28 August, rates will drop significantly to £95.01, which is slightly lower than the same period last year, when average room rates were £98.42.
It is believed rates are being dropped to encourage business travellers back to London before the start of the Paralympics on 29 August.
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By Janet Harmer
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