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Overpriced

For Switzerland's Franziska Jud, Li's Olympic price tag is way off.

Jud stayed in a two-bed room in Zhaolong hostel for five nights in early March and only paid 160 yuan per night.

Jud and her boyfriend are seasoned shoestringers, having spent the last 15 months living in cheap guest houses in Southeast Asia.

"Though it's our first hostelling experience, we like it. It is clean and the room has central heating," Jud said.

"We like the self-catering kitchen, the laundry room, and the sunshine-filled common room. It's interesting to talk with other travelers when you are doing your laundry together."

"I don't think I want to pay 600 yuan for a bed like this during the Olympics though."

Jud said the cost was disproportionate in a city where a packet of cigarettes costs 5 yuan, 10 times cheaper than in Switzerland.

Budget-conscious travelers like these are unlikely to cough up that much for a hostel, but many others will be happy just to have somewhere to sleep during the Olympics.

According to Li, a group of German tourists already tried to reserve 1,250 beds for 20 days during the Games but he had to refuse them due to a lack of capacity.

But he does have a firm game plan for the future.

"I will handle reservations for one third of the 200 beds six months before the Games, charging 50 per cent of the total as a down payment," he said, adding that the remainder would probably turn lucrative during the Olympics.

Coping with the influx

Preparing to get a bigger slice of the accommodation pie during the Beijing Olympics, Zhang said the Beijing Youth Hostel Association is going to lend their hostel management resources to some local budget hotels.

Beijing's hostel business took off seven years ago and now boasts some of the best English-speaking staff in the city, said Zhang Wei, one of the first to cash in on the emerging market.

He said language barriers were a major issue for his team.

"We will invite some foreign language experts to work on the hostel brochures. We want travelers from other non-English- speaking countries to have zero language barriers in our hostels.

"Besides, some Olympic volunteers with language skills in Russian, Arabic, Japanese, French, Germany, Spanish and many other foreign languages will help us," he said.

Both Li and Zhang plan to run Olympics-related side businesses in their hostels.

"I want to set up an Olympic souvenirs vendor stall in the lobby, and I've contacted National Geographic magazine to see if we can develop some special travel maps for backpackers," said Li. He is also plans to develop more branch hostels near Olympic venues.

Meanwhile, Zhang is experimenting with an ambitious plan to transform Beijing's traditional courtyards, or siheyuan, into hostels.

"We are developing a series of 'Red Lantern' siheyuan-themed hostels. We can rent one courtyard for 260-300 yuan per day, and this kind of hostel is really popular among foreign travelers who come to explore old Beijing.
"It would be great to develop more of these for the Games," Zhang said.

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