"There is a gap of about 30,000 rooms as there will be an estimated five million visitors from within the country and abroad during the 2010 Games," Ankur Bhatia, Executive Director of the Bird Group which provides IT solutions for travel and tourism industry, said. 

Of these visitors, 1.5 lakh would be here only for the Games and the additional rooms required to accommodate them would need an investment of about Rs 15,000 crore. 

Pointing towards the virtual absence of three or four-star hotels in the city, he said as the land in Delhi was very expensive, "every investor is going in for bigger hotels to get more returns. The auctions for hotel sites are also turning out to be awfully expensive, forcing out investors." 

He said the much-publicised home-stays have also not taken off as expected, primarily because of a conservative nature of society as well as security issues. 

Bhatia wanted the government to "unleash the potential of existing hotels and motels in the city by allowing them to enhance the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) from the present 0.15 to 1 or 1.5." 

This, he said, would enable the existing hotels and motels to build about 7,000 more rooms. There are about 35 motels in Delhi.