Jim Wang scored tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Pittsburgh, which he paid $800 for. And since Swift’s concert at Acrisure Stadium was about a four-hour drive from his home in Fulton, Maryland, he’d need overnight accommodations, too.
The story of concerts selling out hotel rooms is not unique. On the nights Swift performed in Cincinnati this summer, Red Roof occupancy was 86% across the hotel chain’s eight nearest properties, according to data provided to NerdWallet by Red Roof. Four of the hotel properties sold out entirely that weekend, which Red Roof said is incredibly rare, adding that occupancy rates during the Friday and Saturday she performed were 28% higher than those nights in 2022.
And it’s not just Swift. The Red Roof outpost in Arlington, Texas, saw 30% higher occupancy rates when Metallica performed in August 2023 versus the same weeknights in 2022. The company also said that music-related events such as Elvis Week, which was held in Memphis, Tennessee, in August, have been driving higher demand.
That demand has also met a rise in hotel room prices. For example, data provided to NerdWallet from Expedia shows that the average daily rate for hotel rooms in Minneapolis hit a record high of $440 per night, which coincided with Swift’s June 2023 concert.Some fans even travel internationally — which can be cheaper The TodayTix survey found that 4% of Americans are even willing to book an international trip specifically for a performance.