China:Keen to allay fears of Olympic money-grabbing, Beijing Olympics organisers have played down reports in the local media that hotels in the capital are planning to charge 10 times their usual rates during the games next year.
About 500,000 foreign visitors and one million domestic tourists are expected to pour into Beijing for the games, and there have been widespread reports of hotels charging exorbitant fees for rooms during the two-week event.
Xiang Ping, deputy director of the Beijing Olympics organising committee's services department, said some hotel owners had announced high rates to see how the market would respond, but insisted that prices would probably drop once the supply of rooms increased.
"It is just a game between hotel owners and the market. Hotel owners have been getting a lot of room inquiries, signalling that demand is extremely high, so they released high rates," Ms Xiang said.
"The exorbitant rates are mainly a sales strategy, and reasonable deals are still available if buyers haggle."
The government would not intervene to stop owners of tourist hotels hiking prices, Ms Xiang said, but she was confident supply and demand would ensure reasonable prices as the games approached.
The organisers had signed deals with 120 hotels to accommodate the "Olympic family", which includes visiting Olympic officials, media professionals and sponsors, and the prices for those rooms were lower than originally quoted, she said.
"The average price per night at a five-star contracted hotel is just over 2,800 yuan [ €260]. We had previously said 2,960 yuan," said Ms Xiang.
"About 80 per cent of those rooms have been booked."