A major hotelier in Australia gets in touch to explain that the prices charged during the weeks of the Olympic Games are more than justified. Because, pretty much no matter what they charge, the hotels at the high end of the market will lose money on the deal.

Points me to the Arthur Andersen survey which has the snappy heading:

Sydney Hotels Suffer Decreased Food & Beverage Revenue and
Displacement of Loyal Guests During Olympics But Double Average Room Rate

The problem is that hotels — in Australia and Beijing — make a substantial about of their profit from F&B food and beverage.

An Olympic Games guest has an early breakfast (probably included in the price of the room) and then disappears to the Games to return late at night with sleep the major attraction.

During the period all the MICE events (and the includes all weddings which are a nice little earner) are suspended — indeed, at the Beijing Games they are banned — so the typical convention visitor who dines and drinks and stays near and in the hotel is not on the list.

And, indeed, to be on the safe side there appears to be a buffer period each side of the Games when MICE business — meeting, incentives, conventions, exhibitions plus weddings — stops dead in its tracks just to be on the safe side.

Result? Adding it all up the big hotels lose money during the Games. They did in Australia in 2000. And the hotel executive giving th information is absolutely certain the same will happen in Beijing.
Source: Hotel On Line

The idea that Beijing needs to invest in cultural tourism is, on the face of it, ludicrous. Almost by definition Beijing IS cultural tourism.

However, although the city has been in a turmoil for what appears to be years as it prepares it cultural treasures for the throngs who will come to the Olympics, Beijing also plans to invest in a number of sites that are significant in the cultural tourism sector.

Ahead of the Olympic Games this year, the city will redevelop a number of popular visitor locations, including Tianning Temple.

The three major Shijingshan monuments — Charitable Temple, Fahai Temple and Cheng’en Temple — as well as Western city’s Huoshen Temple will also be given a refurbishment.

Kong Fanzhi, secretary of the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau, said the plans represent the continuation of a trend that has been sustained in China in recent years,

People’s Daily Online reports,’In the past eight years, Beijing has improved over 139 ancient buildings and 106 recently opened sites or expanded monuments, including the Wangshou Temple, Ji Xiaolan home, and the emperors’ temple.’

This year’s development plans will deal with 31 sites across Beijing at a cost of RMB120 million across the city.

Wrong, perhaps, at the time time to suggest it, but there is a medical condition called Stendhal’s Syndrome which has been identified and has been attributed to too much culture in too small a time.

Perhaps Beijing should advertise itself as the city worth many trips.
Source: Opodo

For many Beijing expatriates, the looming Olympic Games presents a possibility to bypass the chaos in August, vacating their homes in order to collect fees of up to RMB3,000 ($420) per night — or even more — from tourists seeking an alternative to hotel accommodation.

Hundreds of Westerners have already reached private agreements to become home-stay hosts, either through specialized agencies or direct negotiations with tenants.

Homestay Beijing specializes in this area. The owner of the agency, Piet Bos, said, ‘Each home is different, but as a rule of thumb, the current rate we use to establish pricing for home-stays is RMB500-750 per person that can stay in the apartment per day. In other words, if you have a two-bedroom apartment, where a maximum of four people can stay, then the average price per night is RMB2,000-3,000 yuan.’

For Olympic visitors, home-stay accommodation can be more affordable than staying in a hotel, as well as providing greater living space and a more localized experience of life in the Chinese capital.

Meanwhile, local expat websites such as Beijing Community have also become forums for individuals to reach private home-stay agreements.

In January, the Beijing Tourism Administration announced the recruitment of 1,000 local households as ‘Olympic family hotels’.
Source: China.org.cn

An official said reports of Beijing hotels ramping up prices for next year’s Olympic Games are based on a misunderstanding of Chinese negotiating techniques.

Local media reports in the first half of this year said hotels in the Chinese capital were charging up to 10 times their usual rates for next August.

Penny Xiang, deputy director of Games Services for Beijing Organising Committee (BOCOG) said, ‘It is a game between the hotel owners and the market. The reason is that there were many enquiries at that time, which released a signal that the market demand was extremely high.’

Penny Xiang said the exorbitant rates are mainly a sales strategy of the hotels and reasonable deals were available if buyers kept haggling.

She said, ‘As far as I know there are not many hotels that have actually signed contracts with clients, and those that have signed contracts are actually not at very high price.

‘The Chinese way of dealing with something we’re not sure about is to wait and see, especially when many hotel owners thought they could get a better price next year.’

But city officials and Olympics organizers contributed to the rush for hotel rooms earlier this year by urging visitors to book early in order to guarantee a room.

Penny Xiang said the Organising Committee had already booked 70% or more of the rooms in 122 top-ranked hotels closest to the Olympics venues. Those rooms are reserved for visiting Olympics officials, sponsoring companies and the media.

For all of the remaining hotel rooms Penny Xiang said that she was confident the market would settle down closer to the time the Games begin.

She said, ‘When the demand and supply reach a balance, it will not be possible to keep demanding such high prices.’

Beijing is expecting 500,000 foreign visitors and more than a million domestic tourists in a daily flow of about 280,000 during the Games.
Source: Washington Post

U.S. buyout firm Carlyle is in talks with New Century Tourism Group to invest in the largest Chinese privately run hospitality firm.

New Century runs hotels in the southeastern province of Zhejiang, the cities of Beijing and Shanghai, the eastern province of Jiangsu and Henan province in central China. All of its hotels carry the ‘kaiyuan’ brand name and are rated above four stars.

An executive speaking for the company said by telephone from company headquarters in the southeastern city of Hangzhou, said, ‘We have been holding exclusive talks with Carlyle for several months, but no final agreement has been signed yet. There are no foreign shareholders in our company yet.’

The word to stress is probably ‘yet.’

He said he could not provide more information on the talks because the company had signed a confidentiality agreement with Carlyle.

He declined to confirm or deny a newspaper report that said the Chinese company had received RMB340 million (US$45.78 million) in a first-phase investment from Carlyle.

The China Business News quoted New Century chairman Chen Miaolin as saying the Chinese company expected to receive the remainder of the $100 million that Carlyle had promised to invest in New Century early next year.

Chen Miaolin told Reuters in an interview in December that New Century was in talks with private equity firms to bring in an investment of more than US$200 million ahead of a Hong Kong IPO.

The newspaper quoted Chen as saying with total assets of more than RMB6 billion, the plan was to list in Hong Kong in 2008 or 2009. The company which currently has more than 20 hotels wants to boost the number of its hotels to about 35 by 2010.

Following the opening of two Marriott hotels in Beijing and Shanghai, Marriott has said that it intends to develop another 30 hotels in China before 2010.

The new 23-story, 588-room JW Marriott Hotel Beijing is said to be the 3,000th hotel of the group. J. W. Marriott Jr., the 76-year-old chairman of Marriott International, which claims to be the world’s largest hotel group, said Marriott would operate 11 hotels in Beijing by the opening of the 2008 Olympics. Another 20 Marriott International-branded hotels will be launched in by 2010. Marriott will increase the number of hotels it operates in mainland China and Hong Kong to 48 by the end of 2010.

The new hotels in are part of the global expansion of the 80-year old hotel group which currently operates and franchises hotels under the JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and Bulgari brand names.

The global hotel chain has also signed memorandums of understanding with local counterparts for an additional 32 new hotels, to take advantage of a thriving Chinese economy and fast-growing demand for domestic travel.

The international lodging group, which operates under brand names such as Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz-Carlton, opened its first hotel in China in the northeastern city of Shenyang in 1997.

Apparently it will now concentrate a lot of effort on second and third tier cities throughout China.
Source: Forbes

The China Daily reports hotels in Beijing have been advised to provide Bibles for foreign visitors during next year’s Olympic Games. Liu Bainian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) who is also vice-president of the government-approved China Patriotic Catholic Association, said, ‘The majority of foreign visitors expected during the 2008 Games have religious beliefs, and we should cater to their needs.’

Liu Bainian said the service could also help clear up foreigners’ misunderstandings about China in terms of religion. He added that the Bible is a must at hotel rooms in foreign countries, especially in Europe.

Liu said authorities should encourage local Christians to donate Bibles for temporary use during the Games, after which they would be returned. He said, ‘The China Patriotic Catholic Association could also help collect Bibles.’

Zhang Liwei, vice-secretary of the Christian Amity Foundation, which operates the country’s sole Bible printing house, told China Daily that his foundation would try its best to meet demand. Mr Zhang said the Bible is published in Chinese and English in China.

No mention was made of other branches of the Christian religion to whom the Catholic bible is anathema. Nor yet of visitors of other religions. Some Bangkok hotels, as shown in the illustration, have a broader approach.
Source: Independent Catholic News

A Chinese province has taken the unusual step of fining hotels and bars more than US$600 if they do not provide condoms, part of efforts to fight the spread of AIDS. The booming eastern province of Zhejiang, with 1,859 recorded infections by the end of last year, has, according to the Beijing News, already started enforcing the rules.

The report said, ‘Condoms or condom vending machines must be placed in hotels, bars and designated public places, or the managers will be fined RMB5,000 (US$650)’ the report said.

The Chinese government originally stigmatized AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capitalist West — a problem of homosexuals, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China. It has belatedly woken up to the problem, and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population. But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.
Source: All Headline News