Beds will be plentiful and hotel prices in Beijing next summer will be cheaper than at other host cities during previous Olympics, the Beijing Tourism Administration (BTA) promised this week.

"Although it is hard to predict the actual prices during the Games, since there are various kinds of hotels in Beijing, one thing is certain: the prices in Beijing will be lower than at previous Games," said Beijing Tourism Association Vice-President Xu Jinzhi. "There won't be a dramatic change in the prices."

With concern mounting about inflated prices and bed shortages, officials were quick to dampen people's fears by saying there will be enough rooms to go around.

"The accommodation facilities in the capital are sufficient to meet tourist demand," said Xiong Yumei, deputy director of the BTA.

She said 333,000 beds will probably be required during the Games, or roughly half of Beijing's current stock of 646,400.

"We estimate that (in August) there will be 350,000 to 430,000 overseas spectators with tickets, 100,000 to 150,000 overseas tourists and about 920,000 domestic tourists coming to Beijing.

"Right now there are over 5,000 hotels in the city, which is more than enough to meet people's needs."

To help matters, Olympic organizing committee BOCOG has released some of the rooms it reserved for the Olympic Family after terminating contracts with eight hotels recently

"The booking conditions for those eight hotels were not very good and some of them are located in remote areas, so we canceled the contracts," said Xiang Ping, deputy director of BOCOG Games Services Department.

"About 80 percent of the rooms (belonging to other contracted hotels) have already been booked," she said.

BOCOG has 120 Olympic-contracted hotels featuring 32,000 rooms. The price for a standard room in a five-star hotel will not exceed 2,960 yuan ($396.5), or 2,320 yuan ($310.8) for a four-star room and 1,600 yuan ($214.3) for a three-star room.

"After releasing about 2,000 rooms, the average prices will be a little bit lower than was previously thought," Xiang added.