Guests at Beijing's top hotels will soon pay more for their rooms as the city's hotel prices catch up with their counterparts in New York, London and Tokyo.

Guest room prices in Beijing will continue to rise 6 percent each year until the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, reported the local newspaper Beijing Daily on Wednesday. According to the article, price guidelines will soon be announced by the municipal tourism bureau and the city's Reform and Development Committee.

The growth rate is calculated based on the local government's commitments to the International Olympic Committee that the overnight hotel room price will stand at 340 dollars (preferential treatment), or 370 dollars (special offer), or 420 dollars (common price).

"We of course hope that the hotel room prices in Beijing will continue to rise," said Oliver Bunk, marketing vice president of the Asian and Pacific region of the Starwood Hotels & Resort worldwide Inc.

Currently, Beijing's average hotel room price is only 50 US dollars a night, according to a report on Beijing hotels released by the Pricewaterhouse Coopers. The global average hotel room price will reach 89.97 dollars a night in 2005.

An overnight room price of a presidential suite in the Palace Hotel, one of the five-star hotels in Beijing, costs only 480 dollars. This price is much lower than that in New York, London, Bangkok, Tokyo, Seoul and even Shanghai, according to the report.

In fact, it is possible to spend a night in a five-star hotel in Beijing for less than 60 dollars, especially during low seasons, such as the nation's "Golden Week holiday" during May Day, or the National Day in October, the paper said.

Price adjustment of hotel rooms during the Olympic games now tops the agenda of the municipal tourism bureau, said Deputy Director Xiong Yumei.

There are now 610 star-rated hotels in Beijing, and 88 have been chosen to host athletes and visitors during the Olympic Games. The price guidelines will also be applied to the city's other star hotels, said the report.

Source: Xinhua