Businesses pay the price for warnings of transport chaos

DESPITE ALL the warnings and the fears, London’s transport system, bar occasional hold-ups, is coping remarkably well with the Olympics, but at a price for shops, hotels, and theatres in the city.

Moran Hotels has two hotels in London, one in Cricklewood, the other in Chiswick. Both are doing better than many other hotels in the city, which have begun to slash prices because of vacancies during the peak August season.

However, corporate bookings – the meat and drink of the hotel trade – are down, says Tommy Moran, the hotel group’s marketing manager. “One company that usually has 15 people staying for two or three days has only one.

“There are fewer weddings and other social events in London over this summer as these seem to have been moved or postponed on the back of the Games too,” says Moran, who managed to fill bed nights left unwanted by agents who had been hungry last year for bookings.

Elsewhere, another hotelier, unable to speak on the record, says he believes that food and restaurant sales are down by up to 20 per cent because the usual business customers who drop in are not doing so.

With good bookings for the next fortnight, Moran can afford to be calm, and sees the longer-term advantages from weeks of international publicity. “It is a wonderful marketing ploy,” he says.

For weeks, mayor of London Boris Johnson and others have been urging commuters “to get ahead of the Games”, by leaving cars at home where possible, or by finding alternative public transport routes.

Hundreds of thousands of people have heeded the advice. Many have also opted to take holidays, or work at home, while day-trippers uninterested in the Olympics have stayed at home.

“My view is that Transport for London and others have set out to achieve what they wanted to achieve, but their goal is not the same as the goals held by businesses,” says the hotelier, who runs a successful operation in the City of London.

Travel companies are reporting contradictory findings. Room prices are £20 a night below what they were this time last year according to lastminute.com, while hotels.comsays they are still ahead.

Companies such as hotels.comhad expected that bed nights in London this August would be 120 per cent above the norm, but they are just 34 per cent higher, in line with other sporting events.

Taxis and theatres, however, are feeling the pinch. Yesterday cabbies, their services unwanted, sat in the sun on Horseferry Road near the House of Commons. Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, describes central London as “a ghost-town”. Business is down by up to 40 per cent, he says. “Normally about 90 per cent of our customers are Londoners but they’ve all left the city and haven’t been replaced by tourists.”

Some theatre tickets are being offered for £20, while one company, Nimax – which owns six theatres in the city – is forecasting that sales will be down 30 per cent. “We’re bleeding darling. For my six theatres, last week was the worst this year. I think the Olympics are great – but I feel like I’ve been the bullseye for the archery competition,” says chief executive Nica Burns.