NEW YORK (Cnn/Money) - The Olympic torch arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday on its journey to Athens. Back in the Greek capital, nearly every hotel has hiked its room rates for the Games, some to breathtaking heights.

Stratospheric pricing -- with hotels charging rates that are four times or more higher than normal -- may sabotage the Games.

The International Olympic Committee reported in early June that only 1.8 million event tickets out of a total of 5.3 million have been sold. Many cite the sky-high hotel costs as a big part of what's keeping demand soft.

"Sales are slower for Athens than they were for Sydney," said Don Williams, vice president of sales for Cartan Tours, authorized by the U.S. Olympic Committee as the official ticketing and travel source for the Athens Games.

"Part of the problem is a little bit of a security concern," he said, but lodging costs, which "are much higher" than in Australia, are another issue.

Williams says the lowest-priced package deal available through his company includes air travel from New York; six nights at the Hotel Cecil, a one-star hotel near the Acropolis; transportation from the Athens airport; daily breakfast; luggage transfer; and access to a help and advice desk.

The price: $4,989 per person, nearly ten grand for you and your significant other. A six-night stay at the suburban, three-star Glyfada Hotel costs even more – $6,889 a person.

That's nearly $14,000 before you take a single bite of souvlaki.

In a typical summer, you can easily put together your own Greek week for about $3,000, figuring roundtrip air from New York, a room at the Cecil and all the expenses of transport from the airport to town.

John Klados, of travel company Homeric Tours, says his company normally offers a six-night Athens package that includes a four-star hotel and round-trip airfare from New York for $1,289 per person. The company has a similar booking during the Olympics that costs about $5,425, more than four times as much.

Another place to stay this summer is aboard the new luxury liner, the Queen Mary II, which will berth in the nearby port of Piraeus and provide cabins for visitors during the entire Olympics.

The ship may win the gold medal for most expensive housing, with a top price of more than $11,600 per person for a six-night package in a deluxe balcony cabin. It also has four-night packages in smaller rooms from about $6,805 a person. These include meals, event tickets, and a $200 donation to the U.S. Olympic team.

Now, an ordinary six-day trans-Atlantic trip aboard the big ship can be had for as little as $1,499. So, again, you're spending four times as much for the privilege of being in Athens for the Games and you're not even getting from point A to point B.

Originally, Athens 2004 Olympic Games organizers arranged to have 11 cruise ships in Piraeus harbor to augment the city's limited hotel capacity. But because of slow sales, officials now expect only eight ships will be needed, according to Cartan's Williams.

Shaky room rates A comparison of the room rates for some hotels recently made available for Olympic visitors show prices have dropped, but are still much higher than under normal conditions. Hotel  Olympics rates (per room, double occupancy)  Normal rates  Percentage difference  Hotel Armonia  $760   $300  253%  Hotel Sofitel  $942  $331  285%  Hotel Marion  $230  $106  217%  Hotel Eritria Village  $408  $175  233%   Source:

That may be one sign that lack of demand could send prices down as the opening of the Games approaches. Another is that a block of hotel rooms recently became available at "very reasonable prices," according to a spokesperson at the Greek National Tourism Organization in New York.

As listed on the Web site www.filoxenia2004.com, these rooms range from $192 a night for a double in a downtown, two-star hotel to $1,074 in a luxury-class hotel. Those prices are per room, not per person, and represent substantial savings over the package deals. They're about two-and-a-half times normal prices rather than four times higher.

As for the competitions themselves, well, you get what you pay for. Tickets for badminton and archery go for as little as $12 a seat, but the most popular events can cost a small fortune.

For the opening ceremonies, for example, you'd pay nearly $550 to sit in the cheapest seats. But these have sold out, so be prepared to fork over a cool $1,170 to witness the lighting of the flame from a better -- and more expensive -- vantage point.

Tickets to the swimming, gymnastics, and track-and-field events are among the highest priced. The best views of the swimmers cost about $240. For track and field events on August 28, the day of many finals, you'll pay as much as $360.

The bottom line is that Olympic latecomers may save money with last-minute bargains.

Hoteliers and tour packagers, on the other hand, would do well to remember the fate of Icarus: flying too high gets you singed.