The FINANCIAL -- The handing back of around 120,000 room nights by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games could be a mixed blessing for hotels.

According to Caterer and Hotelkeeper, as part of the bid to host the 2012 games, LOCOG made agreements with hotels to provide more than 600,000 room nights - at rates agreed in 2007 - for officials, sponsors and the media. However, they always promised to hand back those which were not needed.

Robert Flinter, general manager of the four-star, 179-bedroom Apex City of London hotel, said that LOCOG had kept the entire 65% allocation of its rooms during the Olympics, but had returned all the rooms allocated during the three weeks prior to the event and the four weeks after.

Flinter believes that both leisure and corporate customers are not booking London hotels during July and August because of the widespread stories in the consumer press regarding inflated room prices. In reality, he said, the majority - including the 20 hotels within the E1 association of 20 four- and five-star hotels in east London, of which he is chairman - were not charging excessive prices during and around the Olympics.

London & Partners, the official promotional body for the capital, said that it was working hard to dispel the myth that hotels in the city would be unfairly priced.

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