London puts hotel rooms back on the market

Wednesday, 1 February 2012 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: More than 120,000 unwanted hotel room nights, ranging from five star luxury to budget accommodation, were released by London Olympic organisers on Sunday for resale to the public.

Organisers LOCOG said they were fulfilling a pledge to return to hotels any surplus rooms in time for them to be sold on well ahead of the Games which start on 27 July.

The total, spread over more than 200 hotels, represents some 20 percent of the room nights reserved by LOCOG for media, sports federations, sponsors and the International Olympic Committee under agreements struck in 2005 when London was awarded the Games.

“The hotel industry in London got behind the bid to stage the Games in the most extraordinary way and that support helped us across the line,” said LOCOG Chief Executive Paul Deighton in a statement.

“We always promised that we would not hold on to hotel rooms we didn’t need but return them to the individual hotels at the beginning of 2012.”

While tourist chiefs welcomed the news, some tour operators have said the hotel industry’s expected visitor numbers are hugely inflated.