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London has too many hotel rooms and not enough people to fill them


Skift Take

Like most Olympic host cities, London is set to repeat the mistakes of its predecessors by giving into pre-game hype and building up hotels rooms that will stay vacant or be given away with up to 60% discounts.

The 2012 Olympic dreams aren’t panning out for some of London’s hoteliers who are slashing prices by 30% to 60% on rooms still unclaimed, according to travel sites.

In Central London, there is a five-star hotel in Mayfair for $154 a night and a four-star hotel in Westminster running at $140 per night through the Olympic games and into September, according to Hotwire.com. (On Hotwire, you must purchase the hotel based on number of stars, general location and price before it will reveal the name of the hotel. That allows high-end hotels to offer up rooms at basement-level bargain rates without hurting branding.)

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