Way to look up hotel occupancy rates?

Factual Questions
1

So, my fiance and I getting married next year in Madison, Wisconsin. And we found out that the day we’re getting married is also a Badger home football game. We’re not worried about people not coming to the wedding or anything, but we are worried about getting hotel rooms - many area hotels say they will not book blocks of rooms on Badger home weekends.

I’d like to do some research to find out how full area hotels have gotten during previous Badger home games, and if possible how early they filled up. If we’re going to run into problems, better to know now. I tried Googling, but my Google skills are somewhat weak…

Does anyone know of any resources or ways to look this up?

2

Occupancy rates in the hotel business tend to be kept secret. I may be mistaken, but I think you will have trouble getting this info.

3

Do you think this is true even for a more generalized geographical area? I’m not thinking of the rates for the Hilton vs. the Marriott - just the rate for the Madison area over certain weekends.

4

You might try checking with the Chamber of Commerce or some similar organization.