Stay at the World Cup with a German

Football fans are being given the opportunity to stay with Germans during their time in the host city for this year's football World Cup, which is edging ever closer.

While hotels, especially cheap ones, are all but booked up in Germany's World Cup cities, fans need not be without somewhere to sleep, thanks to some 7,000 rooms being made available to stay in by Germans.

Website www.rooms-worldcup2006.com has teamed up with real estate portal ImmobilienScout24 is helping football fans from around the world find somewhere to stay in the host country during the biggest date in the football calendar.

With the service, Staying With Friends, fans can search free of charge for accommodation that will be available between June 9th and July 9th.

Arndt Kwiatkowski, CEO of ImmobilienScout24, said: "The large selection of private accommodations available at www.rooms-worldcup2006.com shows that the World Cup motto, 'A time to make friends' is not just empty words, but is a flesh and bones reality."

He added that for many Germans, the initiative was not about making money, but something far more noble.

"Many of the people that list with us are interested not so much in the money, but rather in the opportunity for an intercultural experience," he said.

Accommodation can be found in up to a 200 mile radius around the World Cup stadiums, which are based in Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hanover, Kaiserslautern, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart.

Places to stay vary from rooms to apartments to entire houses, meaning there should be something to suit every pocket.

And on top of all this the profits go to a good cause in the shape of the foundation headed up by German coach Jurgen Klinsmann, to help young footballers.
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