Looking for Great Accommodation for the 2010 Olympics?

Posted under Vancouver Olympics by Arctic Fox on Friday 29 May 2009 at 6:11 am

By: Julie Kerknievan

You Can Find the Best Olympics Hotels and Packages Online
Anytime there is a major events like the Olympics or Super Bowl, finding accommodations can be a challenge. Most of these types of events can be booked out years in advance and finding an Olympic hotel can seem near impossible. Calling the local hotels directly won’t help as a lot of them have the rooms reserved in advance as part of Olympics packages that are sold either by them or by an online broker. The best chance you have for Olympic hotels is to do a little surfing online to find one.
There are Plenty of Olympic Hotels and Accommodations Available
Travel companies will normally book out hotel rooms near major sporting events like the Olympics years in advance. They will then assemble a package for customers that usually include the necessary airfare to the location, transportation to the event, Olympic hotel rooms for the duration of the stay, and tickets to the event. These Olympic packages are usually a good value when you consider all of the individual costs involved. Buying one of these Olympic packages can save you quite a lot of money over trying to book all of these things yourself.
Even if you could find tickets to the event, finding an Olympic hotel can prove to be a real challenge. That is because fans of the Olympics know years in advance where the games are going to be held and quickly snap up available Olympic hotel rooms in the area in anticipation of the games. These fans then hold the rooms in the hopes that they will be able to find tickets to the events and can attend. If they can’t find tickets, or change their plans on travel, they can always sell the Olympics hotels rooms to someone else at a profit.
Another group that purchases large blocks of the Olympics hotels is specialty travel websites who then organize a trip around the event. They will sell you a complete package to the event, or even just the room if you want to organize everything else yourself. They will usually charge a fee in addition to the price of the room and the closer you get to the event, the higher this fee will be. This is a simple case of supply and demand and the more scarce rooms become, the higher their price. If you book early enough, you might get lucky and find some reasonably priced Olympic hotel accommodations.
There are even specialty websites that will help you sell your Olympic hotel rooms if you no longer need them. These sites act as a broker for the Olympic Hotel rooms and will connect you with someone looking to purchase them. This type of transaction can be quite profitable for both you and the broker since the closer you get to the event, the more impossible it is to find hotel Olympics packages and rooms.
In addition to online brokers, you could try calling the hotels directly. Some of them will hold rooms for members of their frequent guest programs and if you join one of these programs it may help you to find the perfect Olympic hotel room. Usually these rooms are not advertised on the hotel website and you have to ask specifically for a room under the program, but this can be another way for you to find a few Olympics hotels that might be able to accommodate you for the event. Some of these hotels even offer full Olympics packages and can help you find tickets to events and ground transportation. When you inquire about these types of Olympics packages, you will be spending lots of your time and most likely will not succeed due to high demand but be sure to call the hotel directly and not use their website. Also, if you try to call the hotel, be sure to speak to the consigner directly as they may have deals that are specific to that hotel and not advertised.
In addition to the Olympics Hotels and packages offered online at a specialty broker website, they may have packages available for other big sporting events throughout the year. They will offer packages for the Super Bowl, The Final Four basketball, horse racing events like the Kentucky Derby, World Series tickets, Ryder Cup, Masters golfing and other large events. The handy thing about using a broker for obtaining lodging and tickets to these events is that they can usually coordinate everything you need for the event at a great price. You might be able to find all of the elements of a package a specialty site offers in one of their packages on you own, but it would be hard to beat their package price.
The thing to remember about using an online service like this is that the nearer you get to the date of the event, the higher priced the packages become. This is because as the event approaches, the more scarce tickets to the event become. If you know you are going to be interested in attending an event, try to book the date through one of these brokers as early as possible. Even if you change your mind later, you can still sell the package yourself to someone else and even have these brokers sell it for you. This assures you that you will have the flexibility to back out of tickets for an event that might still be a year away and not lose money. Some of these online brokers will even let you sell lodging you bought elsewhere on their sites as well and charge you a broker fee to do this. Selling lodging you have secured or tickets you have bought through an online broker will give you the ability to command a higher price for them as well because they will be seen by potential buyers worldwide.
So if you are shopping for Olympics Hotels and packages, be sure to check with these online brokers. They have a wide selection of Olympics hotels and packages to choose from and can accommodate most requests for lodging and tickets to the event. They will save you a lot of time and money and make your trip one to remember for years to come.

Article Source: http://articles-mart.com

For more information on how to secure the best hotels for the 2010 Olympics, visit www.best2010hotels.com/.

Pierre Harvey looking for a place in 2010

Posted under Vancouver Olympics by Arctic Fox on Saturday 17 January 2009 at 9:19 am

Canada’s greatest male cross country skier and his son, who could be the next, are both auditioning for a place in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Pierre Harvey, 51, is just like his son Alex, 20, one of the rising young stars on the international nordic scene. Neither Harvey is guaranteed a place in the Whistler Games next February, however, though Alex’s performance this weekend against the world’s elite in only the fourth World Cup cross country ski event ever staged in Canada could move him closer to that goal.

Pierre is trying to make a return trip to Whistler as a stadium announcer. VANOC, the organizing committee, invited him to to do French language commentary at the pre-Olympic test events for cross country and nordic combined this weekend in the Callaghan Valley. If he passes the test, he’ll be back next year.

Continued

US fans find it hard to get tickets to 2010 Vancouver Olympics

Posted under Vancouver Olympics by Arctic Fox on Monday 12 January 2009 at 11:33 am

Harsh news for Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic fans: If you don’t have a ticket confirmation by the end of today, odds are you’ll be dealing with a scalper.

The 2010 Olympics, even though they’re more than 13 months away, are all but sold out.

Thousands of would-be U.S. ticket buyers hoping to attend the Feb. 12-28, 2010 Games were notified about the success of their ticket requests this week by CoSport, the exclusive U.S. ticket agency. And for most, the news wasn’t good.

Some would-be fans who contacted The Times said they requested thousands of dollars’ worth of tickets — up to the maximum number of 48 per person — only to be notified they’re being issued only a few. And the vast majority of fans who requested tickets only for a single, favorite event apparently were shut out.

“The lottery for USA tickets to the Olympics was a huge joke,” one disgruntled fan from Oregon wrote on Olympics Insider, The Times’ Olympics blog.

The reader said his family, which has a time share in Whistler and planned to attend the Games, requested 96 tickets for a multitude of events and received only seven.

Continued here

Cooper ponders Vancouver glory

Posted under Vancouver Olympics by Arctic Fox on Saturday 29 November 2008 at 8:27 pm

WORLD CUP aerials champion Jacqui Cooper was so inspired by Monday’s victory at the next Olympic site, Cypress Mountain, that she is considering continuing on to her fourth Winter Games at the age of 37.

Tempted … Cooper may have one last shot at Olympic glory. AP

Jacqui Cooper

Cooper has never publicly expressed a desire to go to the Vancouver Games in 2010, but she admitted she was tempted after she secured a commanding victory under trying circumstances.

It was an excellent result for the team as Cooper and teammate Lydia Lassila (nee Ierodiaconou) scored a quinella after the event was delayed for four hours because of fog and heavy snow.

“I am at a crossroads in my career,” Cooper said. “Doing well on this course makes me want to continue for another two years. I am on the fence at the moment, but I am going to talk to the Olympic Winter Institute in March, and we are going to make a call in April, and I also have to involve my fiancé, but he’s very supportive.

More here