What hope for those seeking or offering accommodation for London 2012?
The Boundary London, voted best new hotel in London by Conde Nast Traveller in their 2010 hot list, is a member of Design Hotels. Conveniently located for the Olympic Park, but it has only 12 Conran designed rooms and suites. So perhaps it's to be expected that the accommodation is already closed out during July and August 2012.
Are you among those who were successful in obtaining tickets for London 2012? Well I’m afraid that you’ve now got another challenge on your hands if you’re planning a visit to London during the games! If you’re travelling a fair distance to get to the Olympic Park, or any of the other venues in London or elsewhere, you’d better get thinking about your strategy for finding accommodation.
In this post I’ve tried to take a realistic view about alternative strategies that I feel could have a realistic chance of success. Accommodation providers should already be making efforts to market their accommodation availability during both games periods next year. In an unscientific straw poll I found that at this stage much already appears to be sold out .
You might want to consider planning how you (or your guests) are going to get to the games venues by public transport or otherwise, and find out whether a day trip is feasible. No doubt you can also appreciate why it’s already very much in the interest of all accommodation providers to research and publish information online and offline for visitors about likely journey times, the convenience of their location,and how to get to 2012 games venues by public transport.
If you need to stay over, here’s Visit London’s official accommodation finder for London 2012
Many of the evening sessions at The Olympic Park in London finish late – around 10pm, and it already looks as if most events will be sold out, so you can be almost sure that it’s going to be a battle to find accommodation, unless that is, you’ve already booked an official package available through Thomas Cook which guarantees you accommodation linked to tickets.
Favoured locations to stay in the London area
Given an unlimited budget and a free choice, in London I’d recommend looking to stay towards the east of London, or Docklands, and choosing The City, rather than the centre of the West End, in the months of July, August and September, when the weather in London generrally tends to be both hot and humid. Hotels in these areas should already be emphasising the benefits of their location in their marketing materials, and illustrating it in images.
As part of the deal for games ticket holders at London venues, those lucky people will all get free travel on London public transport for the day of the event they hold tickets for, making location slightly less of a consideration, although they’ll still need to consider traffic and travel time to the venue involved. Here’s information about the area of London covered by a Games Travelcard on the day, which might allow people to widen their search area.
Other considerations
Another possible option for games ticket holders might be to narrow down their accommodation choice to a particular area that they favour, and then walk the streets on their next visit to London (well before the games), to try and find likely looking prospective accommodation. Accommodation providers may therefore find walk-ins by prospective guests enquiring about London 2012 will increase, and need to consider how to handle them.
Being near any sort of waterfront is clearly a good option for accomodation, but it is only likely to be available at a premium cost.Most people’s first choice is likely to be anything on or near any part of the River Thames, a canal, or a green space. Proximity to Hyde Park and all the games venues will probably cost people a premium, as will a position on or near water or any of the garden squares dotted about in Kensington, Pimlico or Belgravia. But you’ll be lucky to find any accommodation at all in London at the moment; because huge allocations have already been snapped up by the games organisers for officials, sponsors and competitors; and the balance is probably being held by tour operators for their regular clients on scheduled tours.
At this stage, the situation is likely to be the same in and around other games venues such as Weymouth (sailing), and Windsor (rowing). With football tickets so far proving less popular, you might be luckier in those cities where matches are being played – at the moment – but even there I wouldn’t wait too long!
Possible strategies
If a prospective guest is prepared to pay upfront, they might just get lucky by being persistant with the hotel(s) of their choice by contacting them direct, as soon as their date of stay is known.
The alternative is for them to hold their nerve, register interest on any accommodation web sites or written waiting lists they can find, that will accept their expressions of interest; and be prepared to take a chance later, immediatelywhen contacted, if an opportunity should arise. You can bet that some unsold rooms are likely released from allocations nearer the time; but the chances are that rates will remain high, and only the less attractive locations, and probably only the lowest category rooms within each property, will have availability at the very last minute.
I’m not sure I’d rate my chances for rooms during the games being available on Late Rooms or Last Minute.com; but they too could be worth trying nearer the time, as could multiple chains such as Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, Premier Inn and Travelodge in locations with good rail connections into the capital.
Alternatives to hotels during London 2012
- Stay with friends or relations near a games venue (offer to pay)
- Consider a home exchange
- Look at apartments
- Contact property management companies offering rentals
- Dip your toe into the waters of alternative accommodation providers that I’ve picked up from the media. These all come with a ‘health warning’ because I haven’t used any of them personally:
Camp in my Garden ; Air Band B; self catering and camping in Lee Valley Parks ; Silver Door; Go Native; Glamping; http://www.bedandfed.co.uk/;
Good luck!
Can we help you with marketing ?
Virtual Viv is part of the team at Manifold Associates, working in the UK and travelling the world independently to inform you with incisive commentary about things that matter in marketing. Freelance assignments welcomed. Maybe you’re a business looking to capitalise on the opportunities that London 2012 might bring to you. We’re flexible and versatile. If you’d like to discuss how we might be able to help you with marketing, please get in touch.
PS To access a list of all my posts about the games, click on the words ‘London 2012′ under the heading ‘Tags’ on the right.
More information about The Boundary restaurant with rooms in Shoreditch