At the end of June I wrote about how the expected hotel operator Olympic cash bonanza does not look like happening. More recent articles doing the rounds in the press are further pushing that point.

In what is good news for visitors to the China Olympics the prices for hotel rooms seem to be coming down as the opening ceremony approaches. Many hotels had more than tripled their normal rates hoping to cash in on the summer games tourist rush. It has obviously had a serious effect on numbers making their way to Beijing to watch the games.

Zhang Ting, sales manager for the Zhongyu Century Grand Hotel said “Bookings are so low that we have no choice but to cut prices”.

I wonder how this makes people feel that have booked through the official ticket and accommodation provider CoSport. About six months ago I was looking on that site at the price of packages including tickets and a hotel room and the prices seemed to be highly inflated.

Sports fans thinking about a last minute vacation in the Olympic city should be able to take advantage of the lower than expected hotel room rates in Beijing. Even if tickets are not available the atmosphere in the city should be worth the visit.

Beijing officials have said they expected around 450 000 to 500 000 foreign visitors during the games with an additional one million Chinese visitors heading to Beijing.

The higher hotel prices have been blamed for keeping the numbers down from what was predicted.