No, at this time it takes longer than that to find and book accommodation, as most Beijing rooms during the Games are on request only and instant bookings/confirmations are few and far between. I know, I just tried yesterday to help somebody out. And they want full upfront payment or at least hefty deposits, so the old "dummy booking" routine just to get a confirmation printout seems not that great a plan, or at least not an inexpensive one. Finally, there are many Chinese Embassies/Consulates in the world that want to see a visa applicant's hotel booking confirmation directly on original hotel letterhead, or at least a confirmed email from the hotel, before they will issue Chinese visa. The slack cut to USA citizens applying for visas in the USA isn't necessarily given elsewhere, and I tend to assume not everybody reading FT threads is from or in the USA.