Beijing hotels hurting ahead of Summer Games

China's authoritarian government seems most intent on keeping foreigners away. Visa rules were changed with little explanation, and repeated document sweeps of compounds where foreigners live seem designed to roust any potential troublemakers.

Last week Beijing said it had mobilized a 100,000-strong anti-terrorism force to guard against threats to the Olympics, headed by the elite Snow Wolf Commando Unit.

Ground-to-air missiles have been positioned under camouflage netting just 300 meters from one Olympic venue, a highly visible response to alleged plots by separatists from the Muslim-dominated region of Xinjiang. The government says plotters attempted to crash an airliner and planned to kidnap athletes and journalists.

There are also reports of bar areas in Beijing being forced to close early during the games, with a few around town dubbing these the “Killjoy Games” or “All-China Games.”

“Beijingers will enthusiastically welcome foreign tourists,” said Zhang Huiguang, director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau. “But for terrorists and troublemakers, we'll unite and fight against them.”

Zhang said the average price of a five-star hotel in Beijing ranged from 3,840 to 7,910 yuan ($560 to $1,150 ). Some rates are reported as high as $2,000 per night during the Olympics. The four-star average was 2,226 yuan ($325).

Several hotel managers said potential visitors may have been frightened by the soaring prices, pushed up artificially when Beijing Olympic organizers in 2005 and 2006 reserved 70 percent of the rooms at the city's four- and five-star hotels. Beijing organizers a few months ago released thousands of rooms, dropping their room holdings to 40 percent.

The practice is common in many large events, like the World Cup or Olympics, but it usually drives up prices.

Si Cunxia, sales manager of Travel China travel agency, said the Olympics have hurt Beijing's summer tourism.

“A lot of the hotels overestimated their occupancy rate for July and August,” she said. “The hotels were all too optimistic to think that they would be packed with tourists. In reality, tourists who would normally come to Beijing are not coming during the Olympics because transportation and accommodations are quite high.”

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