With one month to go before the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games, research by Hotels.com shows that hotel prices in the city during the Olympic period have fallen around 25 percent during the past two weeks. The average cost of a hotel room in the capital for the Games period now stands at GBP160, still 75 percent up on the same time last year, but this masks that fact that there are rooms available in the city for much less, such as GBP59 ($93) a night in some instances, depending on the date of stay.

Hotels.com offers three main reasons why rates are dropping: There is more availability in the market, as many of the rooms which the London Olympic Committee (LOCOG) had reserved for the world's media, International Sport Federations, the IOC, people working at the Games and sponsors have now been released back into circulation, and several hotels have also opened over the last few months, increasing the total number of rooms available; many hotels have started to remove their length of stay restrictions and are selling more rooms for one-night stays; and demand has not been as strong as originally expected as tour operators in particular booked their regular groups to other European capitals, avoiding London this summer.