Looking for a last-minute trip to attend this weekend’s Super Bowl? Then do an end-zone dance if you’ve waited to book lodgings. Hotel room rates actually have dropped from where they were months ago.
A month ago, Manhattan rates topped 90% above normal, but have now dipped to 55% above the seasonal average, and in New Jersey rates are coming down from a 125% high, according to Priceline. The booking company reports the average rate in NYC hovers at $250 per night. And that a three-star property in New Jersey can be reserved for as low as $139.
Why? Supply and demand. The New York/New Jersey area offers 115,000 hotel rooms compared with about 40,000 available for last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans where room rates spiked 143%.
Still strategizing? Orbitz’s?Big Game Hotel and Flight Finder?provides rates for specific regions and individual properties and also lets you know by what percentage these fees have gone up or down in the last 24 hours.
According to?Orbitz, 50% of hotels within 3.7 miles of the MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J., have rooms available for an average of $198, down 8% from yesterday. Manhattan, with 68% availability, shows an average rate of $263, down 4% since yesterday. For example, Orbitz’s tracker lists rooms at New Jersey’s Clarion Hotel Empire Meadowlands starting at $144, down 16% from yesterday, and the tracker lists Manhattan’s Affinia Dumont rates at $292, an 18% drop from yesterday.
Don’t just consider properties near the stadium or in Manhattan. “Look for lodging in all five boroughs, ” says Chris Heywood, spokesperson for?NYC & Company, New York City’s tourism organization. “For example, the Z Hotel Long Island City is a boutique property that’s a 10-minute subway ride to Midtown. The Bronx has the Bronx Opera House and Brooklyn has the Hotel Indigo, Aloft Brooklyn, Sheraton Brooklyn and other hotels.” Hotels can be booked directly through the NYC & Company site.
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