Accommodating the Olympics.

• Author: Kimball, Suzanne
• Position: Coldwell Banker - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Limited supply of rooms could spell profits for local businesses.

Any professor of ECON 101 teaching the classic law of supply and demand need look no further than Salt Lake City and the 2002 Winter Games for a perfect example of the principle.

The limited supply of accommodations along the Wasatch front, combined with the high demand for suitable lodging during the 2002 Winter Olympics, is setting up an economic opportunity for several businesses within the hospitality and property management industries.

With almost every room between Nephi and Logan already booked, someone seeking accommodations within a two-hour radius of the capital city for February 2002 may be hard-pressed to find a room. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee has contracted for many of the present bookings to house sponsors and Olympic officials. The Utah Hotel & Lodging Association reports SLOC has signed contracts for 21,000 rooms.

Bob O'Neill, the committee's customer group manager for accommodations, confirms that number. He notes that over 60 percent of the hotel rooms stretching from Logan to Nephi and Wendover to Evanston are booked by SLOC.

As the Games draw nearer and room space becomes more precious, hotels will be in a position to set rates for the remaining rooms, providing even more revenue-producing opportunities.

With a scarcity of hotel space, other peripheral Utah lodging businesses also stand to make a profit. Coldwell Banker is SLOC's official residential accommodations licensee for the Winter Games. Coldwell was awarded the license after a public selection process, and is the only company that can list and rent properties with the blessing of Olympic overseers.

"The advantage to Coldwell with this arrangement," says Kent Schlopy, program director for Coldwell Banker's residential accommodations program, "is that anyone who comes to SLOC looking for accommodations will automatically be referred to us." That reference system is proving to be very valuable for Coldwell, which recorded just under two million hits to its website in October, with that number steadily increasing in subsequent months.

Through Coldwell's program, homeowners can rent their property for any six-day period during the Olympics and walk away with 60 percent of the profit. Coldwell Banker takes the remaining 40 percent and gives a...