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Hotels far from Denver may see DNC business

Hotels far away may see business

By Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 6, 2008 at 9:50 p.m.
Updated August 7, 2008 at 1:43 a.m.

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Visitors who haven't yet booked a place to stay for the Democratic National Convention can still find a hotel room.

They just might have to shell out $300 a night for a two-star hotel in Westminster.

Most accommodations in Denver and surrounding suburbs sold out long ago. Many rooms that weren't immediately snapped up have evaporated in the past few weeks.

"There really isn't anything in the downtown core as far as hotels go," said Ilene Kamsler, president of the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association. "There are some rooms on the outskirts of the city and in the suburbs, but not many."

The DNC will bring an estimated 50,000 delegates, journalists, support staff, protesters and other visitors to town. That number could swell now that Barack Obama has decided to accept his party's nomination at Invesco Field, which could draw thousands more people to Denver.

While some leisure and business travelers will avoid trips that they normally would have planned to Denver during that week, the DNC clearly will stretch the local hotel scene to its limit.

"I can't think of anything that has really had this big of an impact here," said local hotel consultant Bob Benton, whose firm releases a monthly report tracking hotel occupancy in Denver. "We've had big conventions here, but not this big. We're also going to have a lot of last-minute travelers coming into town to conduct business or for leisure. This will probably push out bookings to as far north as Cheyenne and as far south as Colorado Springs."

Benton expects hotel occupancy levels in the metro area to hit the upper-90 percent range, meaning that most of the city's 42,000 rooms will be full.

An online search of several popular travel Web sites reveals that the pickings are indeed slim - and, as one would expect, expensive. Visitors likely will have to settle for a one- or two-star hotel in the suburbs, in the Tech Center, near the airport or even as far away as Fort Collins and Colorado Springs.

The Comfort Inn in Aurora recently had a room for $249 a night, while the Sleep Inn in the Denver Tech Center had a bed for $477.80 a night. Hotwire.com, which offers discounted rates but doesn't reveal the name of the hotel until after the customer books, doesn't have any rooms available.

Kayak.com, which searches hundreds of sites to find the best deals, lists only a handful of hotels with availability for Aug. 24 through Aug. 29, ranging in price from $149 for a Super 8 Motel in Lakewood to $469 for the Courtyard by Marriott near Denver International Airport.

Hotels in cities that bookend Denver - such as Castle Rock and Longmont - are getting some DNC spillover. The Holiday Inn Express in Castle Rock, for example, is offering rooms for $250 a night, while a Super 8 Motel in Longmont has rooms for $140.

Several Internet searches found only one hotel in the downtown Denver area with rooms available. Priceline.com lists a room at the Residence Inn in the Highland neighborhood for $799 a night, which is about six times its rate a week after the convention.

Many hotels have raised their rates considerably, although exact data on prices won't be available until after the month ends.

If Salt Lake City's experience with hosting the Winter Olympics in 2002 is any indication, the average rates could more than double. That city's average room rate in February of 2002 was $190.98, compared with $75.95 a year earlier and $73.14 a year later.

There still appear to be some deals in Denver, but they disappear quickly.

One of the best: $79 a night for a Fairfield Inn in the Denver Tech Center. Priceline listed the rate on Tuesday, but it was gone by the next day.

Some deals

What rooms are left for Aug. 24-29 and how much you'll pay*

$799/night, Residence Inn, edge of downtown

$599/night, Hampton Inn, Greenwood Village

$479/night, Sleep Inn, Denver Tech Center

$349/night, La Quinta Inn, Cherry Creek

$205/night, Radisson, Longmont/Boulder

$175/night, Super 8 Motel, Interstate 25 and 58th Avenue

$155/night, Howard Johnson, Wheat Ridge

$79/night, Fairfield Inn, Denver Tech Center

$67/night, Super 8 Motel, Georgetown

Comments

  • August 7, 2008

    10:47 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    morevents writes:

    we still have reasonable priced Tech Center rooms available at www.dncevents.com

    Some of those prices are way to high and make Denver look bad.

  • August 7, 2008

    3:18 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    ipd101018 writes:

    The Inn at Palmer Divide, in Palmer Lake Co, just an hour from downtown Denver, minutes from the tech center between Co Springs and Denver has plenty of rooms available and has not raised rates during the convention. Attached to the MoZaic restaurant, it's convenient and pleasant 3+ star accomodations at much more reasonable rates than those 2 star places. Online booking available at www.innatpalmerdivide.com or call 719.481.1800.

  • August 11, 2008

    1:38 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Tamara writes:

    We still have a bunch of beautiful, privately owned condos available in Denver's best and most convenient neighborhoods. Check out www.proactivellc.com or call (303) 333-4696 for more information!

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