“Now that the one-year-to-go mark has passed, our clients are beginning to fully grasp the sheer volume of visitors visiting the capital, and the disruption the Games are expected to cause,” reports Ian Windsor, managing director of HRG UK. “Our clients are certainly concerned about business travel during this period.” He continues: “About 65 per cent of London’s usual 120,000 hotel rooms will be allocated to the organisers. With a large proportion of the remainder available for the hotels themselves to sell, we reckon that as little as 12,000 to 18,000 London hotel rooms will be sold into the general marketplace, significantly reducing the number available for business travellers to use. “Furthermore, it is likely that
the Games are going to be a fantastic injection to the UK economy, there is no doubt it is going to be a difficult time for business travellers and the industry as a whole,” she says. “As it is so hard for corporate
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travellers to plan months in advance with concrete decisions and dates, we can definitely expect to see problems around a lack of availability of air travel, car rental and accommodation. “This will give sales consultants a great opportunity to demonstrate more creative thinking – for example, we’ll be flying passengers into alternative airports and using rail travel where possible. However, I expect business travellers will try their best to avoid London completely.” Already one of her clients has rented a few apartments in the London area for its business travellers, and she believes others should be looking to take similar measures. “Not that many have put in place contingencies,” she says. “I’m worried there will be a panic scramble by business travel buyers in the early part of this year.”
capacity on inbound flights will be reduced, which could have a knock- on effect on those travellers trying to enter the UK for business during July and August. Also, the Olympic Delivery Authority and Network Rail have put together a timetable which includes 2,000 extra train services, including increased services to major cities, later into the evening.” HRG is already working with its clients to help mitigate the worst of these problems. Windsor explains: “We’re using the traffic and congestion hotspots that TfL has just released. We're recommending clients rent medium- to long-stay apartments within London instead of hotel stays, and consider towns outside of London with good rail links into the capital.” He concludes: “Ultimately, staying in London will be more expensive during this period so we’re advising our clients to think carefully about whether they need to be in the city during this time.”
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THE TRAVEL MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
Johan Persson, vice- president account management at Portman
Travel, refuses to be caught up in what he believes
is a lot of hype and noise over the effects on the business traveller in London during the Olympics period. “We’re just going to wait and see,” he says. “Until LOCOG’s hotel rooms allocation comes back into the market, which could be as late as March, we really don’t know the true position on hotel availability.” He goes on to say that, at the moment, rates are around 30 per cent higher than normal with prohibitive conditions attached, such as minimum five-night stays and a no- refund or cancellation policy. So he thinks it makes sense to wait and see if this is relaxed nearer the time. “There have been a lot of predictions about London being over-occupied during the Olympics,” he says, “but we’re not sure that will be true – several international cities hosting major sporting events in recent years have actually found themselves with unexpected availability. A recent report from the European Tour Operators Association found that London is set to suffer a 95 per cent leisure bookings slump during the Games. So we think rates may well go down nearer the time.” But he adds: “We wouldn’t advise
any client to contemplate holding a large meeting or conference in London during the Olympics, and if your business does not depend upon travel you might even want to consider issuing a travel ban during the Olympics period.”
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THE SERVICED APARTMENT BROKER
Those who are looking to serviced apartments as a viable alternative to hotels might be interested to learn that, according to Serena Dines, principal account manager at serviced apartment broker Silverdoor, many of these are also already booked. “Availability is very thin on
the ground,” she says. “Some operators we work with have been appointed official suppliers by LOCOG and have block-booked all apartments. We have been told, however, there are two release dates of excess apartments back on to the market in January and April.” She continues: “We’re trying to anticipate disruption and are encouraging clients to plan accommodation for their trip as early as possible. We are sure transient business travel will suffer but, fortunately, most of our