Room-rate rises won't be Olympic-size for Expo

HOTEL prices during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo are expected to rise, but not as sharply as they did in Beijing for last year's Olympic Games, travel-industry spokesmen said yesterday.

More than 200 hotels in the city have started room booking for the 2010 Expo.

Insiders said luxury and economy hotels alike will raise their prices during the Expo. The average price of five-star hotels may range around 1,600 yuan (US$139), while two and three-star ones could charge between 200 to 300 yuan.

Hotels in surrounding cities such as Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing are also expected to raise their rates because many Expo visitors are likely to drop by nearby provinces.

"As the Expo will last for about half a year, the visitor volume will be relatively stable," said Tang Xiaofeng, supervisor of the hotel business department of ctrip.com, China's major online travel service company.

"In Beijing, the room price had a rise of three to four times during the Olympics, but we don't expect that to happen in Shanghai," according to Tang.

The company said people could book rooms by dialing Ctrip's service numbers, 800-820-6666 and 400-820-6666, or logging on to the Website. Officials said they already have received hundreds of orders for hotel rooms.

More than 70 million visitors from China and abroad are expected for the Expo.

Besides hotels, visitors will be able to get rooms in local people's homes - an answer to the expected accommodations crush. Specific prices for the home-stay hotels have not been announced.

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