According to the employee, the cost to rent a Mercedes-Benz S350 has risen to 12,000 yuan per day, four times the regular rate. Furthermore, customers must rent the car for a minimum of five days now.

The VIP fleet only providing luxury cars with Capital Car Rental Co Ltd has booked out its 80 Audi sedans as well as some Chinese premier Hongqi Q3 cars last month.

"We cannot provide even one sedan in the first half of August. And people who want to rent a luxury sedan for the closing ceremony of the Olympic should call us as quickly as possible after August 10 to make sure we have available cars," said a member of staff from the booking department with the fleet.

The rental for a Mercedes-Benz S350 from the fleet is 6,000 yuan per day, and can be rented for 24-hours.

Car rental firms say most people hiring luxury cars in Beijing are corporate clients.

Besides over 11,000 athletes from 205 countries and regions, nearly 100 national leaders and almost 30,000 journalists from every corner of the globe coming to Beijing, it is reported that some of the top business executives also plan a Beijing Olympic trip.

It is estimated that the number of CEOs coming to Beijing will be equal to a Davos World Economic Forum gathering.

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, H Lee Scott Jr, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Greg Brown, CEO of Motorola, are reportedly coming to Beijing to join the Olympic gala.

As official partner and supplier of the Beijing Olympics, the executives of McDonald's, Volkswagen and General Electric will also be present here.

Fred Zheng, PR manager of Schneider Electric told China Daily that executives from their company headquarters in France would come, and said the company is also inviting more than a thousand VIP customers to watch the Games. "Transportation is a serious problem, so we hired a tourism agency to help arrange the trip," he said.

Li Liangdong from the Nike PR department said many of his colleagues would be arriving in China, like in every other Olympic Games.

"I know from my colleagues we have booked a lot of sedans from leasing companies, however, we still need more."

According to the Beijing tourism administration, Beijing will welcome more than 500,000 inbound tourists during the Olympics.

However, the foreigners driving daily in their home countries have to try to ride the newly expanded subway system or take taxis, public buses or shuttle buses to the sports venues.

While there are not enough vehicles to rent, the requirement of owning a Chinese mainland driving license also limits foreigners from driving in Beijing.

The Chinese government has implemented a short-term traffic rule effective from July 20 through September 20, with vehicles with even and odd plate number running on alternate days in the metropolis, which has 3.29 million vehicles.

According to the Transportation Bureau of Beijing, more than 4 million people will switch from driving to taking the public transport during these two months.

Few of them will choose renting a car during the days they cannot drive their own.

"The rent is too high for me to accept. I have bought a bicycle to ride the eight kilometers between my home and office," said Tad Wu, a white-collar worker in Beijing.

"Originally I planned to rent a car to replace my SUV. However, after I inquired the rental fee, I threw away the idea," said Nancy Wei, a white collar worker in the CBD.