Home for the Beijing Olympics
April 18, 2008
Home for the Beijing Olympics
When Canadian Jacob Cooke first arrived in China four years ago, he suffered from knowing very little Chinese.
He found it difficult to perform simple tasks of daily life, such as ordering food in restaurants and using public transportation.
“I tried looking for a homestay service, but could not find one,” said the 29-year-old.
Few people seemed to even know what a homestay was then.
But foreigners who plan on coming to Beijing for the Olympics in August will face a totally different situation.
Visitors will now get more than 490,000 results just by typing “Beijing homestay” on Internet search engine Google alone, including links to websites of individuals offering accommodation during the Games and other portals that claim to help visitors get in touch with the right hosts.
One such link is www.homestaybeijing2008.com. Piet Bos from the Netherlands launched the site last year, which has since helped visitors coming for the Games reserve 15 of the 400 homes offered by the service, according to the March issue of English-language magazine Urbane.
Bos told the landlords and occupants who lease out their centrally located apartments through his website to the visitors that they could expect to make at least 700 yuan ($100) per day per guest, Urbane reported.
The Dutchman reportedly selects apartments for listing according to their proximity to Olympic, shopping and entertainment venues and restaurants, as well as the quality of their facilities.
Another website providing such services, www.olymhomtel.com, has given similar promises to the capital’s landlords and residents.
“The price level is not insane,” Dong Xiaoqing, a 28-year-old Chinese woman who is in charge of the website, told China Daily.
“It is the market that has decided the price. The ‘Olympic’ price of a serviced apartment close to major venues could be rented out at a price five to eight times its normal rate.”
On her website, a 53-sq-m, one-bed serviced apartment near the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, goes for 1,700 yuan for a day in August, about half of the monthly rent of one unit in ordinary times.
Attracted by the potential of such high profits, the two-year-old website – which does not require its landlords to speak English as the Dutchman Bos does – has attracted close to 10,000 Chinese landlords signing up for the scheme.
“We prefer serviced apartments that were built after 2001. If customers show interest in an apartment, we will send people to the door to make sure the apartment is up to mark,” she said.
Dong said she was optimistic of the homestay business because of its advantage of lower costs compared with hotels.
A standard room at high-end hotels such as the Hilton reportedly costs 6,000 yuan, plus a 15 percent service charge, for a day in August.
Even at budget hotels such as Super 8, a standard room costs 2,100 yuan a day, nearly eight times the normal price.
Though the prices are not higher than those of several former Olympic host cities, it is still said to be beyond many visitors’ expectations for prices in China, a country seen as having impressed many foreigners with its cheap and affordable products.
Rindge Leaphart, an American who plans on coming to Beijing for the Olympics, told Urbane that he felt frustrated by the high costs in Beijing.
He called the hotel prices “a rip-off”, and turned to the Internet to find a homestay for his trip. He finally reserved an apartment at $400 a day through Bos’ website, believing it to be a bargain compared to hotels.
Close to 100 apartments offered by Dong Xiaoqing’s services have also been reserved by Olympic visitors, Dong said.
Her clients include domestic and foreign visitors. But most are Chinese who believed that the price of 500 to 800 yuan per room per day in August was acceptable, she said.
Both Dong and Bos expect demand for such accommodation to pick up in the following months.
Cooke, the Canadian who could not find a homestay option in 2004, later started a website offering rent-free homestays.
His program, offered on www.Chinahomestay.org, arranges for foreigner visitors to put up with a Chinese family.
The scheme charges each visitor 640 euros ($1,016) for a four-week homestay with a Chinese family in August, which works out to about $34 a day.
The fee covers accommodation, free airport pickup and at least one meal a day. The homestaying visitor will live in a furnished room with Internet connection. The Chinese host is required to have at least one family member who can speak their guest’s language.
Cooke said the program has attracted at least 175 foreigners.
Some say such homestay serves as a win-win situation, as Chinese families get the chance to practice English and make friends with people from different countries.
Cooke’s program has also attracted more than 300 Chinese families applying as hosts.
Yuan Xiaoqing, 43, a former biochemical college teacher, has a 500-sq-m house in the northwestern corner of Beijing, with at least five spare rooms.
She will be hosting visitors during the Games under Cooke’s scheme.
“I’m offering a homestay not just for the money. I want to have foreign friends who can better understand how Chinese people live and know about our culture,” she said. “There are prejudices and biases that need to be removed through such communication.”
[original article at People's Daily Online]