Skift Take
There needs to be just the right mix of events and hotels and city layout to make a big sporting event turn into a big success. Look to cities like New Orleans and Indianapolis for examples of games done right.
March Madness produces one big winner and 67 losers.
Add Arlington, Texas hotels to the latter.
The NCAA staged the Final Four tournament at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium in Arlington last weekend, but the fans did not flock to area hotels.
According to an analysis of hotel pricing and availability in Arlington by the web data extraction company Connotate, the Final Four tournament brought seesawing demand and, ultimately, low prices and high availability at area hotels.
The data revealed that availability was at its lowest before the tournament began as fans betting on their team’s success snapped up rooms at an average of $276 a night.
But when Syracuse, Villanova, and Kansas and other favored teams were knocked out in the second and third rounds, Connotate saw a 20% reduction in room rates, as fans canceled their reservations. Rates dropped to their lowest at $223 a night average.
On April 3rd, facing mounting room availability, hotels cut their prices by almost 25%. By the night of the tournament, over 60% of hotels had vacancies and room rates were an average of $226 a night.
Some of these fans could have stayed in other area hotels, which Connotate did not track, but the surging then waning interest in rooms is something that played out recently in the New York area during the Super Bowl.
According to STR Analytics, occupancy rates were were 61% in Bergen County, N.J., 79% in New York’s Times Square area and 75% in New York’s uptown and midtown areas, as other travelers avoided the city during the event.
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Tags: dallas, events, ncaa, sports
Photo credit: This chart should strike fear into any city preparing to host a major sporting event. Connotate