Portrait of Ed Netzhammer, regional vice president for Omni Hotels. Irving-based Omni scored big in the bid to host next year's Super Bowl. Both the NFC and AFC will be in Omni hotels in DFW - the first time the same chain has hosted both rivals. For fans of the Green Bay Packers and the Steelers looking for a place to bunk during Super Bowl week, the blitz is on.
Though the National Football League and its corporate benefactors locked up the swankiest suites months ago, Dallas-Fort Worth’s supply of about 100,000 hotel rooms means there are still rooms to be had — for a price.
In the past five Super Bowls, hotel rates on average have more than doubled from the same week in the previous year, and generally average more than $300 a night.
Hotel prices here can be expected to see a similar big-game bump.
“With the Super Bowl … wherever you are you’re going to get [on average] a 100 percent bump, maybe more,” said Bobby Bowers, senior vice president of Smith Travel Research. “I would say you’re going to be in that same range.”
Several groups and travel agents still have listings for available rooms. That includes the host city of Arlington (www.arlington.org/super-bowl-xlv/hotels) and the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee (www.northtexassuperbowl.com).
As of Sunday, the host committee website listed 94 hotels in D-FW with available rooms.
Prices ranged from $639 a night at the Embassy Suites Downtown Fort Worth to $140 a night for hotels in Forney, Plano and Denton. The average was $265.
The list did not include any of the major downtown Dallas properties, which typically command higher rates, because those rooms already are spoken for.
The most popular price point on the host committee’s list was $255, with 17 hotels in areas such as Richardson , Duncanville and Grapevine offering last-minute rates at that level.
As with most things, proximity pumps up price.
A Super 8 Motel in Arlington a few miles from the stadium was listed online as charging $699 on game night. But booking a stay Thursday through Sunday brought the average down to $242 a night.
“The hotels, they’re going to make it while they can,” said Jay Smith, president of Hatfield, Mass.-based SportsTravelandTours.com.
“You might get a Holiday Inn trying to get $399 or $499 because they can.”
At the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, the rate listed on the hotel’s site was $419 a night.
But officials in Arlington and Irving said rates below $100 can still be found at budget properties. And even an average of $200 a night, they said, is a pretty good catch.
“A $200-a-night rate for being around the Super Bowl, and being close, is an extremely reasonable rate,” said Diane Brandon, vice president of marketing for Arlington.
Bowers of Smith Travel Research noted that last-minute, sky-high rates will return to earth once the crowds move on.
“The crunch time is usually Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. That’s when you’re going to see the biggest jump,” he said.
“After that you can almost drop it off a cliff,” he said of the average rate. “It’s going to come down really, really fast.”
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