Charles Passy of MarketWatch reports that as Taylor Swift makes her way through major cities this summer, lodging rates have jumped accordingly. He writes:
When Taylor Swift brings her Eras Tour to a particular city, her fans follow — and they book plenty of hotel rooms in the process.
Now that Swift has taken her act to Europe during the height of the summer tourist season, the result has been something of a pricing nightmare — at least for people who had planned a vacation in any of the tour cities but didn’t realize they were going to be there at the same as the celebrated pop star.
These people assumed they could book a hotel at a given rate, only to find they would have to pay what sometimes equates to hundreds of dollars more per night.
“Taylor Swift is my nemesis,” said Elizabeth Holden, a college professor, novelist and travel agent who takes groups on tours of Europe and who ran into this issue on a recent trip. […]
“Oh my god, the pricing was bananas,” Holden said, adding that a room that would normally cost $400 a night had climbed to $600.
Holden felt she couldn’t increase the promised package rate for the tour, which also included nights in other cities. That meant her company had to eat the difference. “We lost thousands of dollars,” she said. […]
Sperance said that when the pop star came through Boston last year, a room in a no-frills roadside motel was going for up to $900 a night.
Obviously, the best defense is a good offense — meaning travelers should always check to see if any major events are happening before they plan a trip to a particular city. But if they need to be there, Sperance said they should look at hotels outside the city and use public transportation to get where they need to be. […]
So Braun book booked a room using points in his Marriott account. Without that, he was looking at paying as much as $1,000 to be in the Italian city.
“That seemed insane to me,” he said.
Read more here.
