Most of the Fifa officials have organised to stay at the Mayfair hotel – at a cost to Fifa. However, the rates being charged are the discounted Olympic rates of less than £200 a night and any costs above that are picked up by the London organising committee for the Olympic Games (Locog). Football technical officials who will officiate at the Olympic football matches have been booked into three-star accommodation.
In all, Locog has reserved 40,000 hotel rooms for Olympic-related groups such as media, the sports federations, sponsors and officials.
According to Locog, the model developed with the hotel industry was based on actual prices of rooms during July and August in each year from 2007-2010 inclusively. An average price was taken, adjusted for 2 years of inflation and topped up by two per cent in recognition that it will be a bumper summer.
Locog said Fifa, like all international sports federations, has had to pay for its ticket allocation which comes from an allocation set aside from the tickets which are allocated to the public.