Popular hotels like this one in Nanluguoxiang have an early reservation list. 

Although the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics is still eight months away, local hotels are already taking reservations.

Hotels expect that during the Games, about one million domestic visitors and 500,000 foreign tourists will come to Beijing.

Star-graded Beijing hotels have many reservations. Family hotels, which might not be comparable to star-graded ones, still remain appealing to some visitors for their comfort.

Official reception hotels

Beijing Olympic organizers unveiled 132 official reception hotels for next year’s Games last Friday. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) said 120 contracted hotels are in Beijing with 38 being five-star hotels, 45 four-star, 22 three-star and 15 not yet rated. The hotels supply about 30,000 rooms in total.

BOCOG said the average room rate for a double room in a five-star hotel is 2,799 yuan, 2,155 yuan in a four-star hotel. The three-star hotel charge is 1,466 yuan with two-star hotels at 980 yuan per day.

The other 12 official reception hotels are in six co-host cities, including Hong Kong, Shenyang, Tianjin, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao and Shanghai.

Budget hotels

For most tourists, the high-priced official reception hotels are out of range. They are trying to find reasonably-priced hotels for the Olympics and budget hotels are the popular choice. Currently there are nearly 200 budget hotels in Beijing providing a total of 13,000 rooms.

Several budget hotels such as Home Inns, Super 8, the Jinjiang Inn and 7 Days Inn have started accepting reservations. Prices range from hundreds to thousands depending mostly on the inn’s location. Jijiang Inn provides Olympic rooms from 399 yuan to 699 yuan per day for their members. Super 8 and Home Inns offer Olympic rooms from 999 to 2,500 yuan per day.

Some hotels say they have received group room reservation for the Olympic Games and predict that single reservations will peak this March and April.