There are plenty of hotel rooms available for this summer's Olympic Games despite earlier fears of accommodation shortage, a municipal government official said on Wednesday.

"Only 77 percent of capacity of Beijing's five-star hotels have been booked during the Aug.8-24 event, and the rate for four-star hotels is 44 percent," Zhang Huiguang, director of Beijing's Tourism Bureau, told a press conference.

"It's even lower for three- and two-star hotels," she added.

Beijing is expecting 500,000 foreign visitors and a million domestic tourists during the Olympics, while there are 660,000 beds in total at all kinds of hotels in the city.

Like what had happened to each of previous Olympic host cities, prices are skyrocketing.

The average price for a four-star hotel room during the Olympics is 2,226 yuan (about 320 U.S. dollars), three times the room rate of a year ago, and that for five-star hotel is 3,623 yuan (about 521 U.S. dollars).

"On the whole, the prices are reasonable compared with those at previous Olympic Games," said Zhang.

According to news reports, a two-star hotel in Athens cost 300 euros (about 3,277 yuan) a night during the 2004 Games.

Xiong Yumei, deputy director of Beijing's Tourism Bureau, said that they are also close to selecting 1,000 households to provide homestay rooms for foreign visitors.

"By May 10, a total of 1,118 households volunteered to be 'Olympic families'," she said. "We are assessing their capabilities now and will finish selecting 600 to 1,000 homestay rooms by mid-June."

According to Xiong, the "Olympic families" must have a spare bedroom, basic toilet and shower facilities and at least one English-speaking family member.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2008)