Atlanta’s Olympic Hotel Rates Don’t Appear Too Accommodating

Olympic organizers and state officials say they were caught off guard by complaints that international travel agents had been quoted exorbitant prices for hotel rooms in Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Games.

“That this is raising its ugly head is something we need to find out about,” said Rick Layton, hotel executive for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. “It reflects on all of us.”

Carolyn Mills, of the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs, said no price-gouging complaints have been filed.

The Georgia Legislature last year outlawed price gouging during the 1996 Games. Hotel owners, tour operators and wholesalers are allowed to charge up to 5.7 percent more than their published 1994 room rates.

But tour agents representing the national Olympic committees of the Bahamas, United Kingdom, Estonia, Argentina and other countries said the rates have been much higher. The agents were in Atlanta for an Olympic travel and tourism trade show, which concluded Friday.

Among the rates the agents said they were quoted this week: $212 a night for the Econo Lodge that normally charges $49, and $350 for the Holiday Inn on Kingston Court in Marietta, where the published rate for rooms with double beds is $79.

The foreign tour agents said the rates quoted came from local real estate companies or tour operators - not the hotel operators.

Several foreign travel agents said the booking companies are requiring reservations for stays well beyond the Olympics or requiring package room deals that include meals or transportation. Such practices would violate state law.

“There’s no cheap deal at the Olympics,” said tour agent Jonathan Callow. “The prices are in line.”