I have only read it or heard it first hand from other travelers or locals. I know it happened in Torino and Beijing, and I heard it happened in Athens.

For me, for Torino, I booked a hotel in France, just across the border from Italy. It was as close to the bobsled track as the city of Torino was and I paid about $75/night for the room for two of us as I recall.

For Beijing, I stayed with friends of friends (expats who live there). They said they knew of several hotels whose prices plummeted the last month before the olympics. But since we didn't stay in a hotel there, I can only relay what I have heard.

For Vancouver, I decided more than a year ago to stay at hostels. Whistler hostel is really nice, right on the lake, and quite small and comfortable with free wifi, which for me is crucial as I need to work while I travel. The main condition for the hostels during the olympics is a 7-night minimum. So I am spending the last 5 nights in a private room in one of the Vancouver hostels. Still a great deal at just over $100/night for the room. And I only need to take the trip from Vancouver to Whistler twice during that time.

John

This is just a single piece of anecdotal evidence, but in 2002 I ended up with a room in Provo (40 miles south of Salt Lake City, close to some of the venues). Availability opened up about a month before the games, but the only place this particular hotel showed up was on the Best Western website. As I recall, rates were a bit higher than normal high season but nowhere near rack prices, and the minimum stay was 3 days, as opposed to the weeklong minimums I've been seeing for Vancouver.

FWIW, I've noticed availability popping up around Mission and Abbotsford for normal-ish rates, which would have to be better than staying in Washington but still far from ideal.

These might be the surplus rooms the Ringmasters releases a few months ago. It would be a bear of a commute (given that parking will be limited around the venus - if you can even drive there). I wouldn't want to contemplate driving in (and back out) every day but there are lots of folk who do it daily.

Beijing's inventory of hotel rooms then was also a lot higher than Vancouver's now. I think nearly 10x as many rooms.

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But Torino and especially the mountain venues had far fewer rooms than Vancouver. Rooms opened up there. I would be surprised if rooms did not open up by mid January for some rooms at reasonable prices.

You weren't labouring under the misapprehension that the Olympics are actually about sport were you?

Its all about the $$$ :td:

I live and work in Vancouver .....
 

For what it is worth .....

The comute to and from the States is long and I would not consider doing it unless you have a NEXUS pass. Even then it will be difficult and long.

There are many people wanting to rent out a room as a bed and breakfast. Look for someone close to a Skytrain station who knows how to cook and is not doing it just for the money.

There are many small hotels like the one just around the corner from our house. I can not believe that it is fully booked. Gather some names for these hotels / motels by searching for hotels in Burnaby, Coquitlam, ..... and book a room with them closer to the games.

If you have a question about Vancouver pm me and I'll try and answer it if I have time.

Vancouver is a great city try and enjoy it.

..... SC

My wife's boss was offered $600,000 for his Whistler house for the month of February. He declined.

Yup, just look in the Vancouver CL and you'll find a ton of people wanting to rent out rooms. Tons.

And I bet their prices will plummet later next month. All about supply and demand. If "tons" are wanting to rent out rooms and there are not "tons" of people wanting to rent, well, you know the rest of the story.

same with the tickets that are being scalped on the official ticketing site. Speaking of tickets..the purolator delivery service is terrible. I bought tickets on the official site through a friend who is canadian. The tickets were suppose to be delivered nearly 2 weeks ago...but apparently the order was missing the buzzer code for the apartment. They came and left.. Currently getting the run-around about where my tickets are!! Nobody seem to have a clue...

$600,000 for one month is a little hard to believe.

This condo in downtown seems a little better deal, if you can afford it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-OLYMPICS-CO...item4a9d4f4e0b

Talk about a stupid package. The $30,000 price includes THREE nights of lodging but the event tickets they are including are spread over the entire olympic period. Obviously they want you to spend another $500/night for the condo for another 13 nights.

Actually my tickets worked out fine. I ordered some through a Canadian friend and most through CoSport. Both used Purolator, though the US order was routed from Purolator to UPS. All arrived just fine.

My guess is that the buzzer code tripped up the shipment. Hard to believe that the package can't be traced. That is the whole reason for using a trackable service. Good luck.