BEIJING -- Reservations for prime hotels and homestay rooms are doing good business as the Olympics approaches, while travel agencies are preparing for a boom in customers, a city tourist official said on Friday.
HOTEL RESERVATIONS STRONG AT HIGHER LEVELS
About 78 percent of the rooms at five-star hotels in Beijing have been booked, at an average rate of 3,464 yuan (505.70 US dollars), 3.6 times the rate a year earlier, according to Xiong Yumei, the Beijing Tourism Bureau's vice director.
At four-star hotels, 48.5 percent of the rooms have been reserved, at an average rate 2,185 yuan, 4.6 times that of a year earlier. Lower-ranked hotels have lower reservation rates.
There are 5,790 registered boarding facilities in Beijing, including 816 star-ranked hotels, with 339,000 rooms and 665,000 beds. Among all the star-ranked hotels in the capital, 119 had signed contracts with the Olympics authorities.
Most of the contracted hotels are five-star facilities, and Xiong said most of them were largely booked out.
Xiong, who is also the bureau's spokeswoman, said the hotel reservation rate is unlikely to change much ahead of the Games, and the priority now is to get fully prepared for incoming guests.
More than 200,000 employees have received training about the Olympics, international etiquette and foreign languages. Many Western food chefs in contracted hotels also learned to speak English or use body language.
