Taylor Swift heads to Europe next summer. Hotels are already selling out.
19.12.2023 - 21:09
/ thepointsguy.com
/ Anthony Capuano
/ Dimitris Manikis
The economic juggernaut that is Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" is crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
If you luckily snagged tickets, plan on using some of your holiday money to book your European hotel sooner rather than later — or run the risk of it being a "Cruel Summer" with no place to stay.
Hotels in Edinburgh are already 70% booked for June 7 and 8, the first two nights Swift performs at the city's Murrayfield Stadium, according to forward-looking data from hotel industry research provider STR. Occupancy levels dip to 53% on June 9, the final night of Swift's Edinburgh tour arc.
Occupancy rates already exceed 50% on the tour dates of other U.K. cities like Cardiff on June 18 and Liverpool on June 13 and 14. Occupancy rates are approaching 50% in Dublin for all three nights of Swift's tour stop at the Irish capital's Aviva Stadium.
"If you look at the U.K. market, especially the regional U.K. market, those seem to have the higher occupancy rates during the concert dates, and that is definitely the Taylor Swift effect," Cristina Balekjian, a U.K.-based director of hospitality analytics at STR's parent company CoStar Group, said.
Swift's Aug. 1-3 tour dates (where booked occupancy ranges from 31% to 38%) in Warsaw, Poland, are the only dates for 2024 where the city has hotel bookings above the 20% occupancy threshold.
But don't let occupancy rates do all the taking. Average daily rates are already sky-high in certain European cities Swift passes through next summer.
Most Marriott and Hilton-affiliated hotels in popular neighborhoods in Paris for Swift's opening night at Paris La Defense Arena on May 9 start at $300 and climb higher. Rates at Hyatt-affiliated hotels start at $400 in central London and quickly move higher on the dates Swift performs at Wembley Stadium.
"Our hotels have seen huge surges in demand and [average daily rates] during Taylor Swift's 'The Eras Tour' with a city's [hotel performance] nearly doubling during her concert dates," Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said earlier this year during a company securities analyst meeting. "Customers want to be at these events and enjoy these experiences in person."
It's still too far out to gauge if rates will remain this high. However, it's certainly not good news for one's wallet that hotel companies are already trying to see if they can get travelers to spend this much on a hotel room when Swift is in town alongside throngs of summer leisure travelers.
"The Taylor Swift model is absolutely factored in. It's the new line item in revenue management," Dimitris Manikis — Wyndham's president of Europe, the Middle East, Eurasia and Africa — said. "How do we actually maximize it? It was always sports events, but now it's not just sports anymore. It's