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It’s less than 200 days to the London 2012 Olympic games – amid all the frantic preparations many local business are still trying to weigh up how they can benefit from the potential flood of new customers.

Oxford Economics Research Group think that could be as many as 5.5 million people each day, with most of those needing a place to stay .

Martin Couchman, deputy chief executive of British Hospitality Association says “normal business” is expected during the games. They expect most visitors will want to stay in central London and travel out to the various venues and they are predicting very high demand.

He says approximately half the hotel rooms have been allocated to families of athletes and officials.

But if people want to stay centrally – will they be able to get around ?

Many black cab drivers are expecting a big rise in demand for the games , but a drop from regular passengers. Richard Massett, from the Licensed Tax Drivers Associations says there’s been talk of an olympic levy to help compensate for the loss of regular custom – but nothing has been settled

One big sticking point could be the creation of Olympic Lanes , special routes which will only be accessible for the official transport. Business along those routes have complained that their customers may be unable to get to them, especially hotels within the controlled zones.

It’s a similar story for town centre restaurants – expecting a pick up from the Olympic visitors, but their regular customers may chose to stay away.

Richard Shepherd, a London restaurateur is planning to close four restaurants during the Olympics. He says his takings fell 75 percent during the Royal Wedding and the Olympics may be more of the same: “I think a lot of people are going to catch a cold again” he said.