accommodation for summer olympics 2012

Check the London School of Economics website http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/ to see if they have suites of dorm rooms in any of their various dorms around the city. We've stayed there in late August before with a group of 48!

Also check out hostels but whatever you do, would do it now rather than wait as would imagine it will get harder to do later than on.

Having been to the Olympics in Salt Lake City & Vancouver accomodations are one of the biggest obstacles of attending, specifically accomodations that won't kill your budget. People rent out their homes or rooms in their homes so that may be an option, the amount of people you are traveling with a house might be your best option, but about any housing is going to be expensive. So doing the math, amount of money in your budget for accomodations per person added up, then individual rooms or a home that you're interested in, divided by 16, (the amount in your traveling party) should give you your best option. I don't want to use the word price gouge but in the past when I looked for places and saw what people were asking that what came to mind. University dorms are often used to accomodate the press & game officials from all around the world, but from what I've read on their website it looks like that is still an option. With the Olympics are in London I think it would be a safe bet that many people from Europe will be attending since the games are relatively close to home. I recommend going to the official London Olympic website and using their links to search. As mentioned in the previous post I would get on it and get something reserved asap, especially with the amount of people in your travel party.

Part 2:
Here's a link to the London 2012 website, go to the Visting in 2012 page, there's a link there to help you find accomodations. There may be other websites (unofficial sites) that say they will help you find places to stay but stay away from those sites since there is a potential for scams when it comes to events of this size, an event like the Olympics has the magnitude to attract scammers from under every rock. The Olympic site is an official site so I wouldn't worry about being scammed there. In SLC & Vancouver advertisers on their websites had to be checked out prior to being allowed to post availability. http://www.london2012.com/

Off topic I know, so feel free not to answer, but how did you manage to get Olympics tickets for 16 members of one family. They were like hens' teeth from what I heard.

Nigel: I can't answer for susan about her Olympics tickets, but based on my experience this year I can see how she might to managed to get so many. The Phase 1 sale in the USA was similar to the one in the UK: persons putting in requests got very few, if any, of the requested tickets. I put in for 14 and only got 4, and these were for the less popular sports or for preliminary rounds. The second phase was the on-line first come first served sale. There was an initial rush of buyers when the tickets went on sale. The system slowed down, and I was timed out on my purchase so I didn't get any in the first hour. However, CoSport, the official seller for the USA, released tickets throughout the day so that two hours after the sales opened up I could could purchase tickets for a number of sports at my leisure. Granted, these were for mainly the less popular sports such as handball, volleyball, boxing, weight lifting, judo.... and they were higher priced tickets. I could have easily purchased a dozen tickets in a matter of minutes if I wished and had the money. If, on the other hand, susan got mainly tickets for swimming, track cycling, artistic gymnastics, field and track I, too, would like to know how she managed that. George

I completely agree with Barry--finding accomodation is the absolute hardest part of attending the Olympics. You need to decide whether or not to bite the bullet and pay a bucket full of money to have what could be a once in a lifetime experience. You are not going to find reasonably priced lodging. London is expensive to begin with, and when you think about all of the athletes' friends and family, media, IOC members, coaches, politicians, etc that come in to town, on top of the spectators, you are talking about way more demand than supply. We went to the Vancouver/Whistler games and I searched for an entire year before the games for a hotel or condo. First, many hotels are completely booked by the Olympic committee, media, etc years in advance. They might end up releasing rooms closer to the date. People were renting their homes for exhorbiant sums--really obnoxious amounts. I basically found some condo rental-by-owner sites that covered Whistler, and looked every single day for availability. I finally found a studio for $550 a night, which was relatively cheap. I jumped on it and was never sorry. It was a fantastic experience and I never regretted the money spent. So that's what I'd do if I were you--look at non-hotel websites (vrbo, London b and b sites) and look every single day for availability. It's very possible you'll need to split up, so I'd be flexible about this.

Rent a house with that size a group. I rented an apartment for a weekend during the Vancouver Olympics and it was cheaper than any hotel (and as it happened a lot quieter as it was outside the downtown Vancouver party zone).

susan: If you are looking for cheap you can stay in a university dorm. I will be in London for 16 nights during the Olympics, and I booked a room in dorm for $57/night. It appears that many of these dorms will not raise their rates in 2012 by much, but the problem is that they will not take reservations until the end of this summer or until a few months before the rooms become available next May or June. That is cutting it too close for me. I would rather pay a little more per night at this time to ensure that I have a place to stay. George

Reasonably priced goes out the window during the Olympics. Many places aren't taking bookings yet. Of those that are, most have doubled or tripled their usual prices. As with Geor, I've booked a twin room at a University for around 60 pounds a night... shared bathroom down the hall, no breakfast. I'm hoping to get something else, as they aren't opening until the Opening Ceremony (argh!), but no other universities are taking bookings yet. If you're willing to tube or train it in, you might find things more reasonable.

Craigslist is your friend. That's how I found my place to stay in Vancouver.