About 1,600 hotel rooms planned to be used for the '18 PyeongChang Games may not be finished on time, the IOC said today, lending further stress to an already cramped housing situation in South Korea. A total of 11 hotels are still under construction seven months out from the Games, IOC Olympic Games Exec Dir Christophe Dubi said during a press conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. An IOC official said eight of those will probably be complete this calendar year, but three -- with the 1,600 rooms -- could be photo finishes. Dubi said it is too early to describe a Plan B, because each hotel project will proceed at different rates and the exact situation organizers will face is hard to predict. “We are making all efforts,” Dubi said. “Hopefully between and now and December we will have 11 hotels where we can tick the boxes." The late construction update comes as sponsors, fans and other Olympic guests already report limited lodging options outside of the capital city Seoul, two hours by car west of the primary Games locations. The result of the housing crunch will probably mean surprisingly long commutes to events for some sponsors and fans. “The accommodations situation is rather simple: you have, compared to the initial bid, you have a number of hotels that were not built, and as a result we have had to spread some of the constituents wider,” Dubi said. "The PyeongChang area, especially the Alpensia situation (most mountain sports venues), is very tense. But we have not found very good solutions for all constituent groups."
