Beijing Hotels Cut Prices Ahead of Olympics

Several Beijing hotels are slashing room rates, some up to 30 percent, due to a lack of the high demand that the city anticipated before the Olympic Games, the Associated Press reports. China's capital is scaling back the estimated number of foreign guests, originally set near 500,000. High prices, as well as strict security measures and visa rules, have played a significant roll in the lack of tourists to Beijing.

A spokesman for the China Hotel Management Association told the Associated Press that the majority of hotels that are reducing prices are three-star. He added that many Olympic hotels approved by the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee are four- or five- star and have already been booked. Such hotels are for Olympic officials, sponsors and national Olympic delegations.