Effect of Super Bowl on hotel bookings?

[Munch]

@Furious_Marmot

Is this more or less the idea?

Pretty much. As an interesting aside, the NFL is also putting a good deal of money into the deal as well. There’s an inner-city high school in Indianapolis that will be benefiting greatly from the Super Bowl. The NFL is essentially building them a new stadium/football field, and infusing the surrounding neighborhood with a good deal of reinvestment capital.

[Freddy_the_Pig]

@doreen

People are asking how it would be enforced because the way it was presented in the OP would require enforcement and more.

The “enforcement” is that the hotels effectively outsource the booking of 90% of their rooms to the Super Bowl Host Committee. Most visitors then book their rooms through the Host Committee. Individuals and small groups can book rooms through their web site here; large corporate sponsors and tour groups probably deal with a Host Committee rep on a personal basis.

You can still go outside the Host Committee for the remaining 10% of the rooms–if you can find one. If a hotel “cheats” and sells more than 10% of their rooms outside the HC framework, then when the HC books 90% the hotel will be overbooked, with the consequences as described by markxxx. No big deal if it’s the odd individual or two, but if you were foolish enough to overbook a large convention during Super Bowl Week I imagine they’d be pretty pissed and your reputation would take a hit.

[doreen]

@Freddy_the_Pig

The “enforcement” is that the hotels effectively outsource the booking of 90% of their rooms to the Super Bowl Host Committee. Most visitors then book their rooms through the Host Committee. Individuals and small groups can book rooms through their web site here; large corporate sponsors and tour groups probably deal with a Host Committee rep on a personal basis. .

But the hotels outsource the booking on a voluntary basis, correct? And it doesn’t seem as though there is any requirement to have game tickets to book through that site. That’s a very different situation than this

“All of the hotels in the [Dallas-Fort Worth] area have had to guarantee the Super Bowl Committee 90% of their rooms from January 31 to February 7th.”

which would require some sort of enforcement. Me, I think the quote from the OP is a poor description at best of what actually happens.

[Freddy_the_Pig]

@doreen

But the hotels outsource the booking on a voluntary basis, correct?

Yes, but . . . if enough of the hotels hadn’t agreed to do so, Dallas wouldn’t have gotten the Super Bowl.

@doreen

And it doesn’t seem as though there is any requirement to have game tickets to book through that site.

Correct. I’m sure some people do book without tickets just to party and hang out, and in fact Dallas probably wants that to happen as that’s part of the benefit of hosting a Super Bowl.

@doreen

Me, I think the quote from the OP is a poor description at best of what actually happens.

Well, it’s true as far as it goes–the rooms are in the hands of the Super Bowl Host Committee and not of the individual hotels, and the Host Committee enforces multiple-night minimums that would be inconvenient for workaday business travelers. The FAQ at the Host Committee web site is perhaps useful for understanding what the HC is all about.