Dubai: As Hilton Worldwide gears up for a lucrative three weeks of London 2012 Olympics Games and Paralympics, company executives say their room rates will not be hugely inflated during the period.
"For those three weeks during the Games, we won't have a lot of availability in our hotels across London but [we will] also not have hugely inflated room rates. They would be fairly normal," John Rogers, Hilton Worldwide's vice-president of Operations for UK & Ireland, told Gulf News on the sidelines of a conference held yesterday to promote the company's London properties ahead of the Games.
Rogers said the rates being offered are based on inflation from previous years.
Fixed formula
"There is a fixed formula wherein room rates are contracted taking the average of approximately four years," he said, adding that the rates are basically "averaged over a period of time".
While the Middle East is a key source market for Hilton Worldwide, with the region's travellers having occupied over 39,000 room nights last year, the coinciding of the month-long Ramadan period [starting July 20] with that of the Games is likely to have an impact on the traffic from this region to London in that period, Rogers said.
But the hotel is luring Middle East travellers for the period before and after the Games.
"What we think is we will see people coming before and after the Games to see London at its best," said Rogers. "It would be great to come to London post the Ramadan period."
He added that there has never been a better time for people from the Middle East to visit the city with various cultural and entertainment offerings across the city.
