Organisers of the 2012 London Olympics have block-booked 1,925 rooms in some of the capital’s most exclusive hotels for international delegates and their spouses at a cost of £10m.
Top officials have been allocated 345 suites costing up to £3,000 a night at six Park Lane hotels including The Dorchester Hotel London, the Hilton and Grosvenor House. Half the bill will come out of the coffers of London 2012, the Games organiser, in the most expensive block booking in Olympic history.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) indicated this weekend that it was surprised at London’s largesse. At the Beijing Games this summer officials will stay in only two five-star hotels, with some residing in cheaper accommodation.
The officials in London will be given the use of a fleet of 3,145 chauffeur-driven cars, despite the promise of a “green Games”. The route to the Olympic park will be cleared of traffic so they can glide to their destination in east London in about 20 minutes.
Financial details about the hotel bookings appeared in London’s original bid document, but last week were missing from the document on the official 2012 website. London 2012 said the subsidy for the rooms was “a very small percentage” of the privately financed £2 billlion budget for staging the Games.
Such expenditure is at odds with the more spartan era on which the IOC embarked after the corruption scandal in 1998-9 over hospitality and gifts from cities bidding to host the Games.
At the Winter Olympics of 2002, Jacques Rogge, the head of the Olympic movement, made clear what sort of hospitality he now expected from his hosts.
As he checked himself into dormitory digs at a local college, he declared it was well up to the standards expected by the IOC president. “That’s all I need,” he declared to the media. “Nothing more.”
London played up to the new austerity when it launched its bid to host the 2012 Games, promising “excellence without extravagance”. According to a bid evaluation document, IOC members, their spouses and the large coterie of officials in the “Olympic family” would be given hotel rooms during the Games costing £150 a night.
However, like other aspects of the London bid, the apparently modest figures hid the reality – room rates as high as £3,000 a night in London’s most exclusive hotels.
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) said that it has booked “100%” of the rooms at the Dorchester (although some may be released to other guests if not needed). The rooms include the Harlequin suite, which has walls “upholstered in ivory silk” and is said to “glow with Hollywood glamour”. Elizabeth Taylor was staying in the suite when told of her multimillion-pound deal to star in the film Cleopatra.
The Vanity Fair and Hamilton suites are among those on offer at the Four Seasons, which welcomes guests with marble foyers, plush sofas and cream decor. Fifty-four suites are on offer at the Park Lane Hilton.
Under the £10m accommodation deal with the IOC, Locog has guaranteed officials “presidential” suites at £1,500 a night and smaller ones at £330, as well as the £150 standard rooms. The difference between these rates and the real values, likely to be £5m, will be paid out of Locog’s privately financed budget.
“This money would be better spent getting kids enthused about the Olympics and sport than writing blank cheques for IOC officials to be put in overly luxurious hotel rooms,” said Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat culture spokesman.
The IOC, which has its headquarters in Lausanne, was founded in 1894 and is an international nonprofit organisation. It has 105 members, mostly sports administrators and former athletes, and an administrative team.
Members of the “Olympic family” who will be staying in IOC accommodation during 2012 include representatives from national Olympic committees, the heads of sporting federations, antidoping officials and representatives of countries organising future Games.
The IOC has tried to curb costs in the past. A report in 2003 warned against “overspending and gigantism”. It recommended the use of existing venues to guard against “Olympic white elephants”, limiting “entourages of high-ranking guests” and cutting accommodation costs.
Locog negotiated with the hotels for discounted rates. A spokeswoman said: “We have already made a provision for paying any such subsidy and have accounted for this possibility. These costs will not be passed on to spectators.”
There were signs this weekend that proposed costs for the “Olympic family” would now be curbed. Locog last week said that the size of the proposed car fleet might be reduced.
The IOC said it was Locog’s decision to subsidise the rooms and that more modest accommodation could have been used. A spokeswoman said it now intended to decline the offer of any “presidential” suites and would release about 500 of the rooms booked for 2012.
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