Hotel rooms 'are running out a year before Games', says swim champ Rebecca Adlington

Double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington today said her parents have already booked their hotel in London for next summer's Games because of the rocketing cost of rooms in the capital.

The swimmer, who is expected to go for gold in two events at London 2012, revealed her father, Steve, and mother, Kay, had to book a Holiday Inn a year in advance as hotel rooms were being taken so quickly.

Adlington, whose parents missed one of her gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 after falling victim to a ticket fraud, said her family would get tickets for the events she takes part in next year.

She said: "My parents booked their hotel last week - a lot of them are booked out already. My mum said hotel prices are insane so she booked it straight away."

Locog, the Games organising committee, has block-booked 40 per cent of all the hotels in central London -including a string of some of the best rooms - for officials, sponsors and media.

Hoteliers keen to capitalise on the rise in demand are holding customers on long waiting lists while they consider increasing their rates.

Adlington, 22, took to the air today to launch the National Lottery's London 2012 Games hot air balloon tour, thanking players for their £2.2 billion investment in the Olympics and Paralympics. She went up in the tethered balloon outside Tate Modern.

She said the images of rioting and looting in London that were beamed around the world would not put off potential visitors to the capital for the Games next year. "I don't think people will associate the two. The Olympic Games are in a village environment and it is very different."

Adlington, from Mansfield, added: "I come down to London all the time and every time I have been safe. Every major city in the world has a good part and a bad part and good and bad things about it. I think London is amazing and has amazing tourist places for people to visit."

Welsh swimmer David Roberts, an 11-time Paralympic gold medallist who also went up in the balloon, said it would have been impossible for him to remain a full-time athlete without Lottery support.

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