Although the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in August is still more than half a year away, local hotels are already taking reservations at a fast and furious pace.
Beijing tourism officials expect approximately 1 million domestic visitors and 500,000 foreign tourists to travel to their city during the Games.
The good news, for foreigners at least, is that the internationally branded hotels in Beijing are out of the price range for many of the domestic visitors, and to help with the mass of tourists coming to Beijing, there are six co-host cities, including Hong Kong, Shenyang, Tianjin, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, and Shanghai.
It's also good news that hoteliers in Beijing predict that March and April is when most people will try to book for the Olympics—early birds still have time to get the room.
Below, courtesy of the Beijing Tourism Administration, are some creative ways to find a room if your first few choices are full:
Budget hotels
Budget hotels in Beijing—including Home Inns, Super 8, the Jinjiang Inn, and 7 Days Inn--are taking reservations and room rates at a fraction of the price of the bigger hotels.
Home-stay inns
There are currently five home-stay agencies that are accepting Olympic room reservations. Two of them, Homestay Beijing 2008 and China Homestay, are operated by a group of expats living in Beijing.
According to China Homestay Manager Jacob Cooke, his agency has 556 spaces remaining for next August. The fee is $800 per person for the entire four-week period, with a maximum of two guests per house.
Homestay Beijing 2008, an agency run by Piet Dos, has 200 different homestay accommodations available, and all of the hosts speak English.
Links
www.homestaybeijing2008.com
www.chinahomestay.org
www.olymhomtel.com
www.2008bay.com
www.2008inn.com
