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The average price of hotel rooms in London during the Olympic Games is likely to fall sharply with organizers LOCOG expected to release a second batch of unused rooms.
In January LOCOG released more than 8,000 rooms, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph, prompting a 25 per cent fall in average rates, and a further 12,000 are to go back on the market.
“A number of rooms have been released by LOCOG, so the average daily rate of a hotel room has been coming down,” said Andy Washington, managing director of online travel agency Expedia.. “It’s been around 8,000 since the start of the year but we expect another 12,000 to come soon.”
Washington said the average price of a room in London during the two-week Olympic period is currently £208 per night, down from £280 at the start of the year.
“We have seen this rate drop by six per cent in the last two weeks alone,” said Washington, adding that a large number of overseas visitors are avoiding expensive flights into Heathrow and flying into Britain’s regional airports. Flight bookings into Manchester and Glasgow during the Olympic period have risen by 40 per cent compared with the same two weeks last year.
www.expedia.co.uk
30/04/12
