107th IOC Session - LA84 Foundation

Reservations and Invoices
Notices of reservations listing the name and
address of the accommodation facility, number
and type of rooms, and room rates were sent in
November 1996. Upon confirmation of the
reservations, an Accommodations Guide and
schedule for payment was sent out. Requests for
changes to reservations were accepted until
January 31, 1997. Although there was not a
large number of such requests, the finely intertwined
nature of the system made adjustments
an intricate task.
As NAOC was contractually obligated to the
accommodation facilities for finalizing reservations
and payment of deposits, organizations for
whom the reservations had been made were requested
to submit payment in full to NAOC.
Invoices were sent out in May 1997, and although
the payment deadline was July 31, 1997,
only 82% of the room charges had been paid in
full by the end of September. All payment for
accommodations was eventually received.
Finalizing Rooms / Advance
Payment
To assist with preparations for guests, regular
contact was maintained with the hotels and
inns to update them on the status of room reservations
as well as to provide information about
which groups and organizations would be staying.
In particular, hotels near ski resorts needed
reservations confirmed as soon as possible so
that they could take reservations from the general
public for cancelled rooms.
NAOC contacted hotels in April,
September, and again in October 1997 to provide
information on guests and their duration of
stay.
A significantly lower demand for accommodations
than originally estimated, particularly
from NOCs and Sponsors conducting hospitality
programmes, led NAOC to cancel room
reservations at 100 separate facilities in outlying
towns in April 1997. More reservations were
cancelled between April and September 1997,
when a number of groups reduced the number
of nights of accommodations they required, and
hotels were advised of these changes as soon as
possible.
The final deadline for cancelling room reservations
without incurring a cancellation charge
was October 31, 1997. Any cancellations after
this date incurred a charge, which was set higher
than the penalty levied against regular guests
who cancelled. Based on the number of rooms
reserved as of the October 31 deadline, NAOC
paid a 50% deposit to the accommodations facilities
on December 1, 1997.
Pre-Arrival Preparations
In cooperation with Olympic liaison groups
set up by the hotel industry, NAOC conducted
training workshops for hotel staff beginning in
1995. Each of the three workshops focused on
an underlying theme: “An introduction to the
Olympic Games” (1995), “Crime/Disaster
Prevention and Sanitation” (1996), and “Service
Manual for the Games and Accreditation
Categories” (1997). Supplementary lectures
were given by persons with previous experience
in international sports competition management
Many spectators and
Games personnel stayed
at hotels and family-run
inns like these.
A number of new
hotels were built around
Nagano Station.
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