HOUSTON – Anyone with family and friends who are thinking about making last-minute plans to come to Houston to partake in Super Bowl festivities, they might be in for a shock.
With scores of out of town guests visiting the city for the single biggest day in American sports, the demand for hotel rooms has never been higher, and neither have the prices.
“If they can find availability in Houston, the price isn't going to be discounted,” said Stephanie Summerall, director of sales and marketing at Hotel Derek.
An online search of downtown Houston on Expedia discovered 95 percent of the hotels are already booked.
One room was available for $425 a night.
The Rodeway Inn & Suites near the Texas Medical Center had a room for $990 a night and $1,500 a night at the Doubletree Hotel in Greenway Plaza.
“There's a ceiling. Yes, there is a ceiling,” Summerall said.
Hotels are well within their right to jack up the rates, but they have to abide by the maximum price points that are set when the property is built.
It’s called the full published rate and can be find it on the back of every hotel room door.
The Hotel Derek near The Galleria was sold out nine years ago.
The hotel committed 90 percent of its inventory when the city put its bid together for the NFL in 2008.
“If you are lucky, you will get some of that inventory back, so that you can utilize it to look at some of your corporate clients or people who have stayed at the hotel for a number of years,” Summerall said.