Olympic Park hotels open for start of London spectacle - The Sun
IHG showed off their flagship Holiday Inn and plush Staybridge Suites located at the epicentre of what will be London’s finest spectacle this summer.
Not only are IHG the Official Hotel Provider to the Olympic and Paralympic Games but they are also tasked with the overseeing of the Olympic village which will be housing 17,000 world class athletes.
Denise Lewis, 39, former British Heptathlete with three Olympic games under her belt attended the launch and described life in the Olympic Village as "daunting". The gold medal winner also gave the thumbs up for the running of the village to be handled by experts in hospitality: "It’s good if someone takes care of you so you can take care of your performance; it needs to feel home from home."
This seems to be the mantra for the Staybridge Suites which aims to be more home than hotel. Rooms are decked out with their own kitchen and they are also the first hotels to be kitted out with Apple TV in the UK so guests can play their music through the television or download movies from iTunes. Already five people have booked a room for a year.
Denise was joined by Great Britain’s leading ribbon gymnast Frankie Jones, 21, to create a special routine for the opening who will be competing on the 9th and 10th August. The ex-Olympian said: "As one of Team GB’s Olympic hopefuls it’s exciting to hear about Frankie’s preparations, coupled with seeing the area come to life. The views from the hotel are incredible and give a sneak preview to guests of the action and excitement to come this summer.”
Not only do the hotels offer spectacular views of the Olympic Park and London skyline but it’s also located right next door to Westfield, Europe’s largest shopping centre complete with a hub of transportation links from Canary Wharf and the O2 Arena to the centre of London.
It's certainly looking like the Olympics have given Stratford the golden touch, let's hope the same can be said of team GB and the likes of Frankie now!
London Olympics 'to come in £476m under budget' - BBC News
The London Olympics is set to come in under its £9.3bn budget with £476m of the contingency funding left, according to new government figures.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was "fantastic news" that the games would be on time and under budget.
Ministers expect to be able to return the remaining money to the Treasury.
The £9.3bn budget, which included a £2bn contingency, was set in 2007 and was almost four times the estimated cost at the time London bid in 2005.
The budget was revised upwards after taking into account previously overlooked costs such as VAT, increased security costs, and an expanded brief for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to regenerate the lower Lea Valley area.
Mr Hunt said: "Britain has proved that not only can we put on a great show for the world to watch like we did with the Jubilee but that we can also deliver big construction projects on time and on budget."
Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said the latest figure for the Games, which begin next month, was "a great advert for the British construction industry, for sport and for UK Plc".
Following the success of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the ongoing Olympic torch relay, additional funding of £19m has been earmarked to bolster crowd control and public information for the games.
The money, which will be allocated from within the £9.3bn budget, will pay for additional stewards and crowd flow measures in central London as well as the "last mile" - what organisers describe as the distance between transport hubs and Games venues.
Mr Robertson said: "We know exactly how many tickets have been sold and roughly how many people should be in London. Absolutely nobody knows how many people are going to turn up.
"London this summer is going to be the place to have a party. It is a great national event. It is very difficult for us to know exactly how many people are going to come across on the train, in the car or on the ferry only for a party."
The government confirmed the work of the ODA, which is responsible for developing and building the venues and infrastructure for the games, is 98% complete.
It will not be fully completed until after the Games when the ODA will convert apartments in the Olympic village into thousands of new homes.
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