I went online trying to reserve a hotel room in Tuscaloosa for the LSU game on November 6. Nothing is available. Even in Bessemer there is very little.
I cannot believe every hotel room is booked on January 8. I suspect the hotels haven’t released the rooms yet, i.e., they are holding the rooms until they can set prices and force people to pre-pay. Letting average Joes like me reserve this far in advance limits their ability to price gouge.
Any info would be appreciated.
Sending you PM
Letting average Joes like me reserve this far in advance limits their ability to price gouge.
[/QUOTE]
??
No it doesn’t. The lodging venues know when the games are and most have already set high prices and are booked solid. There may be a few that haven’t yet opened their calendars, but their delay isn’t changing that fact that if they did open their calendars, they would set the prices for those known dates at that time.
The prices will be very high whether they let you reserve now or later. Many have already been booked up at high rates.
The so-called price-gouging is simply this…these lodging venues have high-vacancies during much of the year. They could not exist if they didn’t charge market-driven prices at very popular times. Those high rates help the business “stay in the black” the rest of the year.
One of my Tuscaloosa VRBO rentals has all games booked except one. My other VRBO rental has a few games left.
Not sure on the hotels. Some may be behind the 8 ball, so to speak and are holding off on setting rates. If they have not yet checked the football schedule, could be possible.
My condo is booked for almost all of the SEC games. The week the schedule was released I was slammed with requests. Some wanting to book every single home game. I don’t do that as it is also where we stay when in town.
Right now, we have plans to attend for the LSU game so I have that weekend blocked for me. I had someone book the Arkansas game the week that the schedule came out. Others are going fast.
I can’t imagine that any Ttown lodging venue hasn’t yet checked the 2015 football schedule. It’s been out for awhile.
It’s possible that some haven’t yet opened up those dates for reservations. It’s also possible that ESPN and others have reserved blocks of rooms and some may get released later when its determined which ones they don’t need.
I don’t know if Embassy Suites has opened up their registration for fall yet. And there is another hotel opening near ES…I think it’s a Hilton.
Someone has said the Embassy Suites have sold out all rooms for home game weekends.
Ha! Try booking hotels for graduation - those reservations are made 1+ year in advance…and this post just reminds me to put that on my calendar for 2016…
^^^
Yes, because Graduation 2016 bookings have been going on for months already.
When does the football schedule tend to come out?
The 2015 schedule came out in November 2014 IIRC.
For a town its size with a large university, Tuscaloosa has a severe shortage of rooms. Supply and demand, folks. They charge the tariff because people will pay it.
Try hotel rooms in the Hoover area of Birmingham.
Although there are new hotels going up , the fact is that there are only 7 home football games each year. There are also only a few other days where there is high demand for hotels. Few more are going to put more hotels here, just to have them empty most of the time. When that does happen, then those premium dates are going to have a premium charge.
Altho supply and demand is in play, the fact is that hotels here have a high vacancy rate at other times. Those premium dates keep things in the black. This isn’t a huge city where there would be frequent events drawing large crowds.
I am staying at Holiday Inn in March and called and asked about home games and he said rooms are released on 5/15-not sure about other hotels though
^^^
Yes, a small number of hotels do this. When we experienced this at another hotel, it was for non-refundable dates.
When we stayed at the Rodeway Inn for Iron Bowl, they were booking onsite for all the following year games. Maybe if you call the hotel directly instead of the 800 number??