A study of the impact of the London 2012 Olympic Games on the leisure and tourism industry has revealed that London-based hotels could face a glut of no-shows for bookings made to coincide with the event.
The analysis, which was carried out by holiday lettings company, CLC Leisure, claims to have revealed that considerable numbers of games fans are attempting to offload their pre-booked hotel accommodation. In the main, these are people that bought event ticket and hotel packages with the sole aim of securing the tickets, and without any real need for the inclusive accommodation.
Commenting on his company’s findings, CLC director, Laurence Hicks, said, ‘Desperate to get tickets to events of their choice, people have paid over the odds for a ticket and hotel package even if they live right next to the event venue. In fact many of the hotels in these packages are inconveniently located miles away from the main venues. I know that a secondary market has started for these hotel rooms but it is difficult to transfer them and I expect that there will be many no shows.’
It is unclear how hotels will react to no-shows, and if they would be prepared to leave unclaimed rooms empty at a time when there could be considerable demand from other visitors that genuinely need a room.
Another CLC prediction is that traditional end of summer holiday discounts will be few and far between this year, due to a post-Olympics booking increase for late August and early September.
