London 2012 Olympics Logo - The Games Accommodation
Spending a night in London while the Olympics are on? Then choose your accommodation carefully. Some hotel prices are more than £300 higher during the event, says Which? Travel.

With less than a month to go until the Opening Ceremony of this year’s London Olympics, excitement is mounting in the capital. But although visitors may be looking forward to seeing the world’s greatest sports men and women in action, they won’t be looking forward to forking out over the odds for a hotel room – as much as 400%

Hotel chains

Booking with Holiday Inn, the official hotel provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, at their Stratford Express hotel, we found one night’s accommodation for two people on Saturday 11 August – the day of the Women’s High Jump finals – for £410. It’s a convenient location, but if you were to book a double room for the following Saturday, you’d pay just £79.

Staying at Best Western Ilford hotel on Saturday 11 August, a double room for two now costs £385. Just two weeks ago, when Which? Travel also checked prices, the same accommodation was only £245. A double room the weekend after, though, for Saturday 18 August, is just £64 - £321 cheaper!

Premier Inn is offering double rooms on 11 August at their Stratford hotel for £199. The following Saturday, after the Olympic Games are over, the room costs £82.

Travelodge prices come down

Saturday 11 August also sees the Men’s 10m platform diving final. And it would appear that the prices at some Travelodge hotels are taking a bit of a dive.  Double rooms at Travelodge Docklands on 11 August are being shown online for £150 – for the past eight weeks, a room here on that night has cost £237. 

A double room at Travelodge’s Excel hotel for 11 August, which was being offered for £299.95 a month ago, is now over £220 cheaper at £79.50.

'There was always going to be an increase in hotel prices during the Olympics - London will have thousands of extra visitors during this time, so it's a basic case of supply and demand,' says Lorna Cowan, Which? Travel editor. 'But seeing increases of over 400% is ridiculous. With less than a month to go, the majority of people will have booked their accommodation, and will have paid over the odds.'

Which? Travel has been tracking online prices at four UK hotel chains most visited by Which? members – Best Western, Holiday Inn, Premier Inn and Travelodge – since July 2011. Prices listed were checked at the hotel chains’ websites on 27 June 2012 and were the best available rate. Conditions on these may vary.

Source: Which?
Tags: HOTELS ACCOMMODATION TOURISM TRAVELLING   

 
 
In the middle of a rush for tourists and athletes to secure a place to stay in London after the high prices and low availability, a company makes available numerous houses and rooms for rent during the forthcoming Olympic Games in London.

London – Feb 19, 2012 – The competition has already started because finding a place to stay during the 2012 Olympic Games has become a marathonic activity for thousands of athletes and tourists coming to London. With soaring prices and plunging availability, future visitors from all over the world are participating in a race to secure a good place at a good price.

Even though the city recently put back on sale thousands of hotel rooms that were reserved for officials and media, it hasn’t been easy for many visitors to find a place to stay.  Moreover, many Londoners are leaving their homes to make them available for rent and get that extra cash that would be very helpful in this time of economic crisis. However, property owners are not finding it easy to rent out their homes and flats due to difficulties to connect these owners with potential tenants.

The good news is that a London-based accommodation company has just put available numerous houses and flats throughout London to help visitors find a room to stay. The company has released a website called The Games Accommodation (http://www.thegamesaccommodation.com), where users are able to see all the properties including their photos, locations, and prices. Users can go online, search for availability and immediately book a room.

All the properties are fully furnished and ready for people to move in. All of them are located in easy access areas of the city, with public transportation within walking distances to make commuting to venues and tourist attractions hassle-free.

This new website comes in a moment in which the Olympic Games are just around the corner and thousands of people are still looking for a place to stay. The company has also said that new properties are constantly being added so they are able to meet the huge demand, as the city’s expectations to receive large amounts of visitors are quite high.

About The Games Accommodation
The Games Accommodation (http://www.thegamesaccommodation.com) is an online platform that allows users to easily search and immediately book properties and rooms. They are committed to provide high-quality and safe accommodation in London, helping visitors to get the most out of their journey through the UK.

Tags: ACCOMMODATION | ROOMS | FLATS | HOUSES | TOURISM | TRAVELLING
 
 
Preparing for Olympics - The Games Accommodation
PAUL GILHAM / GETTY IMAGES
Britain may end up being the most popular vacation destination this summer, and there’s no bigger event happening in the U.K. this year than the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. While it’s still months away, if you’re not actively planning your trip by now, you bloody well should be. So here are some tips to getting to the Olympics and back with your credit rating intact.

Where to Get Your Tickets: Think Outside the Box (Office)

Sole U.S. ticket distribution rights have been handed over to a company called Cosport and, as you might expect, the majority of tickets that are left (they’ve been on sale for nearly a year now) are about as costly as a marriage to Kris Humphries. The few reasonable offers are exclusive of flights or accommodation. A two-day package of beach volleyball and basketball plus hospitality starts at $1,278 per person while the equivalent package for volleyball and men’s boxing finals starts at $2,452. But unless you fancy paying more than $10,000 for Cosport’s ticket and accommodation packages, then it you may need to look elsewhere.

Many Brits are finding that they overstretched themselves in the ticket bidding process and are looking to sell them back. With a $31,600 dollar penalty for selling Olympic tickets on the open market, Brits are unlikely to be broadcasting their intentions on eBay. However, there’s a loophole that allows tickets to be sold to friends or family. Sounding out any U.K. contacts you have should be the first port-of-call, followed by regularly scanning the U.K. sections of Gumtree and Craiglists for potential opportunities. Some tickets are on offer already, and with a 1.3 million more British tickets to be released in April, more are likely to appear.

However, be cautious. One U.S. woman has already fallen victim to crafty British con men, but the London 2012 organisers are running a very useful website checker that flags up bogus online vendors.

Where to Get Your Flights: Compare or Fly Elsewhere

Travelsupermarket.com (a site that compares flights from hundreds of companies to find the cheapest prices) shows Virgin Atlantic offering the best deals on flights. A round-trip from Newark to London Heathrow, leaving on July 26 and returning Aug. 9, came to just $804.44 (including taxes) while the next cheapest offering was $1069.60. It goes without saying that prices are only going to rise between now and the Olympics, so it’s best to book ASAP. If you do find yourself staring at prices of biblical proportions, then it’s always worth remembering that both Britain and mainland Europe are incredibly compact, so widening your flight search to say, Paris (where a Eurostar train to London takes just over two hours), could well pay dividends.

There are also numerous alternative U.K. airports you could try flying into, while nearby Brussels is less than two hours away on the Eurostar. Wherever you end up landing, be sure to make use of the handy London 2012 journey planner tool to find the best route to your final destination from anywhere in the U.K (and surrounding countries).

Where to Stay: Do as the Cockneys Do

Follow the example of London’s former natives and stay in the surrounding suburbs. Leafy areas like Essex and Surrey are less than 30 minutes away on the train but offer an aesthetic antidote to London’s concrete-clad landscape. And many hotels in the area are offering early deals. And for those absolutely determined to party away in the capital, there are a range of accommodation options. Websites like Crashpadder or Holiday Rentals, which boasts a special section for Olympic visitors, are great for finding spare rooms and apartments, while you can liberate a tourist-fearing Londoner by hooking up a house swap at HomeExchange.com.

And If You Can’t Get a Hold of Tickets: Go Anyway! 

Several of the most exciting Olympic events, including the marathons and road cycling races, are free to watch. Plus, there will be huge screens (and even bigger parties) showing all the action at iconic London landmarks including Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park and Victoria Park. There are even events you can experience before the games begin (starting around mid-May) when the Olympic torch arrives on British shores, while early June promises to be a riot (the good kind this time) as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee sparks a raft of royal celebrations, including concerts, parties and an aquatic extravaganza on the Thames. Throughout the summer, dozens of free art and music festivals are scheduled in conjunction with the Olympics, providing the cherry on top of what promises to be a summer-long London party.


Source: TIME
Tags: TOURISM | TRAVELLING

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