As of: February 2, 2024, 8:40 a.m
By: Luca Hartmann
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Visitors to the Olympic Games in Paris have to be prepared for horrendous housing prices.
The search for affordable accommodation also poses problems for thousands of helpers.
Paris – exorbitant prices and a housing shortage: This is what tens of thousands of fans and visitors will have to prepare for when the Olympic Games take place in the French capital Paris from July 26th to August 11th this year.
There is hardly any affordable accommodation during the Summer Games in the “City of Love” – and this also affects the many volunteers.
Olympics 2024: Volunteers struggle with exorbitant prices
Over 300,000 people applied to help out at the games as so-called volunteers in the summer.
Around 45,000 of them were selected by the Olympic Organizing Committee.
More than half will be deployed in the greater Paris area, but given the horrendous rental prices during the Games, the question arises as to where many of them will be accommodated.
According to the French news agency
AFP,
the average price for an overnight stay in the capital in July and August is around 1,050 euros per night.
And the costs for the volunteers will also be difficult to cover in the wider area surrounding the capital.
According to the tourist office, the average cost there is 342 euros per night.
During their work, however, the helpers are only reimbursed for daily travel costs and food.
The Olympic rings in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
© Michel Euler/AP/dpa/Symbolbild
Accommodating volunteers at the Olympic Games is difficult
With deployment times sometimes lasting over two weeks, the helpers incur high housing costs.
Although the organizers are trying to deploy the helpers close to their homes, this will hardly be possible for everyone.
The high accommodation costs were recently even discussed in the French Senate by the government's representative for the Olympic Games, Michel Cadot.
However, Cadot was optimistic that many of the volunteers would find a place to stay through personal connections.
“If you come to events like this, you meet a lot of new friends,” he said.
In addition, the helpers knew when they applied that they - "apart from a few thousand among them" - would neither be paid nor accommodated, he emphasized.
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Camping as an alternative for many helpers
In order to avoid the high housing prices in central Paris, many of those helping out resort to the cost-effective alternative of camping.
Six months before the games, many of the places near the venues are already fully booked.
“Everything is already booked for the games - completely unusual for this time of year,” said an employee at the Paris-Ost campsite.
However, because spaces at other camping locations are already becoming scarce, France's National Olympic Committee is looking for further solutions to accommodate those helping.
(LuHa/AFP)