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At a certain point, sleeping in your car with the heater on has to sound like a good idea—at the very least it would be cheaper than staying at a budget hotel.
You can now add that to things we thought we would never write. Reuters’ Victoria Cavaliere reports that budget hotels near MetLife Stadium are renting rooms at ludicrous prices thanks to that Super Bowl you all are so eager to watch.
Cavaliere writes that rooms in the West Orange, NJ, area normally going for $100 a night are being offered for $1,000 during the week of the big game. Don’t worry, because we assume those hotels offering free continental breakfast will continue to do so. Although, that muffin better be dipped in gold now.
Obviously, this is what happens when hundreds of thousands of partygoers descend upon your town. Rooms are at a premium and hotel managers aren’t the kind to pass up an opportunity to garner every buck that’s to be had.
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The part that might surprise you is all the unconventional places renting rooms at ludicrous prices for Super Bowl week. Cavaliere writes:
The event is expected to bring in more than a half billion dollars in economic activity to the New York-New Jersey area.
That vision has put dollar signs in the eyes of hotel operators, homeowners and apartment dwellers in the region’s already pricey real estate market, with some of the advertised lodgings seen as the most expensive ever for a Super Bowl, observers say.
Bill Ryan is the managing director of Super-Bowl-Rentalz.com, a website created to match would-be Super Bowl fans with rental properties for the festivities.
He explains the very simple reason some homeowners are deciding to open their own doors or the doors to their rental properties: “There’s a lot of hotels, businesses and commercial real-estate owners who are cashing in on this event and taking the opportunity to make a buck. So, why wouldn’t Joe Homeowner give it a shot?”
This past year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans garnered hotel room rates at about $1,500 per night, a sum necessitated by the 96 percent occupancy rate.
The assumption is that occupancy rate will be met or exceeded by kickoff on Feb. 2, so there is a very real market outside of normal hotels.
Cavaliere researched the regular channels to find rates for various properties, including Craigslist. A “mansion” will cost you upwards of $10,000, while a small studio is going for $750.
If you want something magnificent for the week, a 5,700-square-foot home will cost $35,000. Although such extravagance comes with multiple bedrooms, an in-home gym and maid service.
If you are looking for something like the Ritz-Carlton, you are reportedly going to shell out more than $5,000 per room.
And you still have time to book, because many hotels are far from sold out. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy offered, “About 80 percent of the people going to the game don’t know it yet and won’t until mid-January.”
While many jump at the chance to see the Super Bowl no matter the teams featured, even more apparently wait to see exactly who will clash in February before booking their trip.
This is the moment we would like to remind you that exorbitant prices are hardly the only headache for travelers.
If you aren’t taking mass transit, you will have to fight for a limited number of parking passes going for quite the handsome sum. Myers writes they are sold for “a price tag of $150 for cars and $350 for buses.”
So, if you want a moral to the story, it’s that the Super Bowl is an arduous destination. Apparently, that’s true for the fans as much as it is for the teams fortunate to be featured in the game.