The Games sparked a hotel building boom, but the hordes of tourists failed to arrive. What can innkeepers do to recoup? Last year, management of the Red Hotel Beijing took over a drab Stalinist-era style hotel on the eastern side of Beijing and decided to give the old place a facelift. Located one block north of the stadium and arena scheduled to host the Olympic soccer and boxing matches, the hotel had a location that seemed a sure moneymaker for the Beijing games. So the Red Hotel invested $1.5 million to nearly double the number of rooms to 75, add a fresh coat of brick-red paint to the facade, and install wireless Internet access. Eager to recoup its investment, management—in the days before the opening ceremony on Aug. 8—started charging room rates of $262 a night, a sixfold increase over the old rates. Even with such big price increases, management figured they could fill at least 70% of their rooms with tourists during the Games.