Tourism authorities in Beijing are looking for welcoming households to provide rooms for foreign visitors during the summer Olympics.

Xiong Yumei, deputy director of the Beijing Tourist Bureau, said that the bureau would recruit about 1,000 households as ‘Olympic Family Hotels’ to increase the city’s guest room supply for the event. More than 500,000 overseas visitors are expected during the summer Games, with the largest daily inflow estimated at 300,000.

Xiong said that Beijing has 806 star-ranked hotels that have 130,000 rooms with 220,000 beds. Other lodging houses and inns have another 646,000 beds.

Xiong Yumei said, ‘The guest room supply may still fall short of demand, especially for hotels close to the sports venues.’

She said, ‘Families should own the apartments that they plan to offer and be able to provide foreign guests with spare rooms, good ventilation and sanitary conditions.’ She added that at least one person in each household should be able to communicate in English.
Source: China View