[photopress:hotels_beijing_apartment.jpg,full,alignright]For many Beijing expatriates, the looming Olympic Games presents a possibility to bypass the chaos in August, vacating their homes in order to collect fees of up to RMB3,000 ($420) per night — or even more — from tourists seeking an alternative to hotel accommodation.
Hundreds of Westerners have already reached private agreements to become home-stay hosts, either through specialized agencies or direct negotiations with tenants.
Homestay Beijing specializes in this area. The owner of the agency, Piet Bos, said, ‘Each home is different, but as a rule of thumb, the current rate we use to establish pricing for home-stays is RMB500-750 per person that can stay in the apartment per day. In other words, if you have a two-bedroom apartment, where a maximum of four people can stay, then the average price per night is RMB2,000-3,000 yuan.’
For Olympic visitors, home-stay accommodation can be more affordable than staying in a hotel, as well as providing greater living space and a more localized experience of life in the Chinese capital.
Meanwhile, local expat websites such as Beijing Community have also become forums for individuals to reach private home-stay agreements.
In January, the Beijing Tourism Administration announced the recruitment of 1,000 local households as ‘Olympic family hotels’.
Source: China.org.cn