any luck w/hotels during olympics
 

we have been waititng to see if any inventory would open up. So far no luck. Any ideas about rooms or a small house?

yeah, I booked ahead in easyclicktravel.com, I did it some time ago though, you should check if there are still rooms. good luck...

An organization has been formed by a consortium of charities here in Vancouver and they are posting private residences and rooms for rent. The neat thing is that 50% of the money paid goes to the charities ( for the homeless mostly I think) I have heard about it on the news but haven't personally researched it. It might be helpful. wwww.homeforthegames.com

An article I read last week said Vancouver hotels were at 90% occupancy, which means there should be some availability. Even though I already have lodging I looked at the Whistler website, and was surprised to see some hotels did still have rooms (not cheap though). Anyway, did you look at the accomodation section of the VANOC site (rather than just calling certain hotels)? Though I know for your dates everything might be booked...

Item in the National Post yesterday about rooms going begging at Whistler.

From what my "last-minute" friends have learned, nothing exist that is even close to afforadable. Hotels have been sold out for a long time and the 90% full is more like 100% full. The lowest price for a hotel room...not near the venues is still upper $700.00 for two.

More private homes are opening as the restrictions are being lifted, yet you have no regulatory body to protect the money that you will pay in advance,vouch for the clean factor, as much as anyone can even for hotels.

For two other olympics that I attended I did stay in private owner occupied/shared homes. In Atlanta we had a grand time with the family. The lady made delicious breakfast and wicked cocktails for us in the evenings. Our space was large, nice and cleaned every day. She lived aways from the center of events but we just allowed ourselves time to get to the public transportation spots. While kitchen access was a "no" she still allowed us to cook and we ate with her lots. We became family.
In Australia our stay was very good. The woman could not cook and was a bit of a busy body but caused no harm. She was anal about her telephone (no cell phones then) so that was the only stickler. We had to clean our room/bath and eventually she allowed us to "roam" the house and share the living room and back yard with her.

This time...I am very-very central to it all and their is no owner occupied/live with me situation. I am paying a King's Ransom...Yet, this time, I am backed by the official VANOC Accomodations, things will stay clean(a maid) and the place is a dime as our son would say!

Please be careful of scams and opportunist.

Good luck!

MorningGlory, I think that article must have been about booking outside of the Olympics period--bookings are indeed down for December and January. But a 10% vacancy rate at Whistler during the Olympics is quite high. The cheapest rooms available now start at about $1000/night.

Oaktown,
Do you mind saying who you booked your unit thru? I'm looking to lease a private condo but as mentioned above, the trust factor is lacking with most of the leasing companies I've see. There are several that are linked directly from the Vancouver2010 website but they are all very $$$.

TampaExplorer:

Try EMR. They are the official Vanoc company for housing.