Three tips to find accommodation during the London 2012 Olympics - The Independent
Director Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony in particular - a celebration of British culture and its contribution to the world stage - is set to be spectacular: from Daniel Craig’s in-character appearance as James Bond, to hundreds of NHS nurses showing up, details are sporadically leaking through but exactly what’s going to happen is still tantalisingly unclear. Recent reports of the Queen dropping in by helicopter are to be taken with a pinch of salt, surely?
More certainly, the influx of Olympic visitors from across the globe will add to the already huge numbers of summer tourists that temporarily settle in the second most visited city on the planet, adding to the seasonal strain on London’s infrastructure and the city’s hospitality sector.
For most of these visitors, accommodation is fundamental but finding something comfortable, affordable and convenient isn’t going to be easy as the inundation of Olympic visitors coalesces with the huge number of traditional tourists.
If you are planning on staying in London in June, and still haven’t found somewhere to stay, here are three tips to help you find something fitting.
Investigate short-term lets
Hotels are the default choice for most tourists, but many savvy London citizens are renting their properties to visitors over the Olympic period - and this option can provide a more personal and homely experience than a room in a large hotel.
Finding one of these properties is more nuanced: in many cases you can find and contact property owners directly through informal adverts placed on listings sites like Gumtree and Craigslist but there are also agencies that act as middle-men between property owners and visitors to offer Olympic rentals, such as Hampton International.
Look further afield than London
It’s ideal to be located within easy reach of East London for the Olympic Park but many visitors - particularly visitors who’re not familiar with the area - may be unaware of the Olympic accommodation options outside London that still offer easy access in barely over an hour. And these options can be more affordable than premium-priced London counterparts.
Brighton, for example, offers a seaside situ on the south coast, a vibrant local culture and access to central London within under an hour on the fastest rail connections. And plenty of rooms are guaranteed to be available - some with a sea view.
Check halls of residence
Many universities rent out rooms in halls of residence out of term, which is convenient: most students will have left to go home as the Olympics arrives in town.
Arguably this option is more of a last resort, or one for bargain-seeking visitors travelling in small numbers, but it’s definitely worth investigating: halls of residence rooms aren’t as stereotypically stark as is often imagined and, when compared with dingy rooms in last-minute budget hotels, they can be comparatively luxurious.
It’s almost certain that the 2012 Olympics is going to be great, but finding Olympic accommodation is a less certain affair. If you haven’t found anything yet then complementing your search by acting on the advice and information offered should help you find a place to rest your head within easy reach of the action.
London 2012: Road cycling tickets go on sale - BBC News
More tickets for road cycling events at the London Olympics are on sale, organiser Locog says.
Tickets are available for Box Hill in Surrey - where the road races can be viewed - and Hampton Court Palace, for the time trials.
Tickets priced from £5 to £15 are available on a first come, first served basis until they are sold out.
Box Hill is a special conservation area, but Locog said it was working to minimise the impact on wildlife.
The decision to charge for the 15,000 tickets being allocated to the prime viewing point has angered some local people, including local councillors, who say any profits from the event should go to ensuring the Olympics leave a legacy for the area.
Tickets providing access to The Hill and the big screen at Wimbledon - where the Olympic tennis events are being held - are also on sale, as well as tickets for the Orbit sculpture on the Olympic Park, Locog said.
The Orbit, which is between the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre, will give visitors a view of the entire park and across London's skyline.
BBC's Olympics correspondent James Pearce said he had been "inundated" by reports from people complaining that the London 2012 website was not working.
But the organisers said the problem had been resolved.
A London 2012 spokesperson said: "The sheer volume of demand meant that we managed transactions slowly in the first 20 minutes. However transactions now flowing through in their thousands."
Our correspondent tweeted that the site was meant to cope with 250,000 transactions an hour.
Unsold ticketsVisitors will be able to take a trip up the structure in a lift and have the option of walking down the spiral staircase.
Tickets for the Orbit are available only to those who have Olympic Park tickets or tickets for an event in the park, and only for the day they are due to visit, Locog said.
On Friday, the BBC reported that about 300,000 Olympics tickets that went on sale earlier this month remain unsold.
That is out of 928,000 put on general sale earlier this month and are in addition to the more than one million football tickets which remain unsold so far.
All tickets have been sold in some sports, including athletics, track cycling, equestrianism, rhythmic gymnastics and swimming.
The opening and closing ceremonies are also fully sold out.
But tickets are still available for sports including boxing, basketball, beach volleyball, weightlifting and football.
Vauxhall inks parts distribution deal with Norbert - Automotive Business Review
Vauxhall Motors has awarded a GBP1m contract to Norbert Dentressangle for the distribution of its parts further three years.
As per the deal, Norbert will be responsible for the overnight distribution of automotive parts to 300 Vauxhall and Chevrolet retailers throughout the UK.
The logistics firm will also collect orders from Vauxhall's parts distribution centre in Luton, UK for overnight delivery to retailers through its national shared-user network.
Norbert will also offer various services including waste management, sorting and management, yard services, site shunting and outbound loading.
Vauxhall Motors warehouse operations manager Peter Durham said that Norbert Dentressangle provides a transport solution that enables the company to maintain a high level of service to its retailers.
"This combined with the a range of added value site services means we will continue to benefit from a reliable and cost effective parts distribution operation," Durham said.
Norbert has been providing Vauxhall with aftersales parts distribution since 12 years, and with this contract extension it will offer services to 35 new trailers.
London 2012 could be first ever Paralympic Games to sell all its tickets - The Guardian
Paralympic officials say they are confident the London Games could become the first to completely sell out in the event's 52-year history, following another round of strong ticket sales.
More than 1.2m of the 2.2m tickets on offer for the 2012 Paralympics, which run from 29 August to 9 September, have already been sold, the bulk of them in a much-promoted initial sales window in September. Another 125,000 were sold last week.
"We're probably in the strongest position we've ever been in for ticket sales ahead of a Paralympics," said Craig Spence, head of communications for the Bonn-based International Paralympic Committee. "Our intention is that it would be great if we could sell out the Games. It's definitely possible; there's a real potential for us to do it.
"It would be amazing. Bear in mind that in Sydney 12 years ago they were still giving away a lot of tickets. Tickets being sold for a Paralympic Games is still a fairly new thing, so to sell all of them for full price would be pretty remarkable."
Adrian Bassett from the London organising committee, responsible for the ticket sales, said the scale of early sales had been unprecedented: "A sellout is certainly possible. When you look at previous Paralympics it's quite often during the Olympics or just before that people wake up to the Paralympic Games and there's a surge of ticket sales then. We're expecting to still be selling tickets quite close to the Games themselves."
Even if the Games opened with just a few remaining seats available it would be a significant achievement, both for the London Games and the wider acceptance of Paralympic sport by the public.
At most of the 15 summer Paralympics since the first event, in Rome in 1960, seats have been given away for free. Organisers of the 2000 Sydney Games sold 1.2m tickets in all, with a figure of 850,000 in Athens four years later. Beijing in 2008 saw more than 3.6 million people watch Paralympic events in all, but almost half of tickets were distributed by the Chinese government to schools and community groups. Even the 1.82m full-price tickets were relatively cheap, ranging from 30 to 80 yuan (about £3 to £8).
The London Paralympic prices remain competitive – aside from the opening and closing ceremony the highest figure is £45, while 75% cost £20 or less.
The interest in tickets has been prompted by a number of factors, Spence said, ranging from pre-Games coverage by Channel 4, which will broadcast the Paralympics, to the wider awareness of Paralympics sports in the UK. He said: "People are buying into the concept. British Paralympic athletes are far more well known, say compared to China. We're in a far stronger starting position here than we were going into the Beijing Games. Paralympic sport is probably more accepted in this country than in any other country in the world."
Interest has also been spurred by the likelihood of some home success: the British team won 42 golds in Beijing, and has come second in the medal table in the last three summer Games. Spence said: "Everyone buys into winners, but I think people are also just buying into the fact that it's elite sport. They know they're going to see some really competitive action. It's elite sport at its best."
Such has been the interest that London officials are at pains to point out that while some lower-capacity sports such as wheelchair tennis and wheelchair rugby have largely sold out, tickets remain for many sessions in the 80,000-capacity Olympic stadium and in the aquatics centre.
For example, tickets are still available for the evening session of 6 September, where the finals include the men's wheelchair 800m, with London marathon winner David Weir a favourite, fellow Briton Hannah Cockcroft going in the women's 200m wheelchair race, and the men's T44 100m sprint, where the field is headed by the Paralympian superstar Oscar Pistorius.
The latter race would most likely be more exciting than its Olympic equivalent, Spence predicted: "At the men's T44 100m in the world championships last year just 0.09 seconds separated the top four finishers. Then think of by how fair Usain Bolt usually wins his 100m."
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