Shanghai Daily news

If you are a Formula One fan and have not booked a Shanghai hotel room, you may have problems as most hotels in the city have a full house during the event.
“Some overseas visitors started to book rooms more than a year ago, and some of them booked thousands of rooms at the one time,” said Liu Chenjun, Accor China’s sales manager.
“It is a real surprise after we experienced a hard SARS period.”
No regular room in Accor China’s four hotels in Shanghai is available.
But if you are a VIP guest, Accor may spare a premium room at a higher price, Liu said.
It’s the same story in most premium hotels including Shanghai JC Mandarin, the Portman Ritz- Carlton and the Grand Hyatt Hotel Shanghai.
The Grand Prix has been good to hotel operators — most of them have raised room prices to take advantage of the event.
A room in the Grand Hyatt Hotel Shanghai was set at US$440 a night from the usual US$170 and Pudong Shangri-La Hotel also doubled its price to US$370.
Many hotels are also demanding customers pay for a minimum of four days, even if they want to stay only one night.
And guests are being asked to pay in advance.
“It is a bit unreasonable. But as the market size is still not big enough to meet the whole demand, we can do this — to retain the rooms for those real fans and maximize our profit,” said Wang Kairong, the sales director with Crowne Plaza Shanghai.
Meanwhile, some hotel operators plan to provide special services to cater to guests from all around the world.
Sofitel Jin Jiang Oriental Pudong Shanghai will increase the number of its shuttle buses to Jiading area where the event will be held.
And as the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese festival for reunion, falls next Tuesday, the hotel will send mooncakes, a sweet paste with a round shape symbolizing reunion, for guests.
Bars, nightclubs and restaurants around the city are also expected to do a brisk trade over the weekend.
Taxis are likely to be hard to get and traffic in the city is expected to be more congested than usual.