'Taylor Swift is my nemesis': Hotel prices soar due to pop star's Europe tour

By Charles Passy

As Swift makes her way through major cities this summer, lodging rates have jumped accordingly

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.

Holden had planned for her group to spend time in Edinburgh and based her cost estimates on hotel pricing before the Swift dates in that city had been announced. Then came the news that the Eras Tour was pulling into town at the same as her group.

"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.

Data from CoStar, a company that tracks hotel pricing, confirms what Holden experienced. In one European city after another, occupancy rates soared when Swift was in town - and so did prices. In Lisbon, for example, the average daily rate for a room in May was $225, but during the time Swift was in the city that month, that average rate soared to as high as $314 - a roughly 40% hike.

'Oh my god, the pricing was bananas.'Tour operator Elizabeth Holden

Some travelers to Europe adjusted their plans because of Swift's appearances this summer. Christina Busso, a resident of Alexandria, Va., was planning a stop in Amsterdam as part of a family European trip. But Swift was playing that city at that time and Busso was looking at rates of $500 to $600 a night. She opted to stay in Rotterdam instead for around $250 a night and to visit Amsterdam on a day trip.

"Having more time in the city would have been nice," Busso said.

Of course, the issues that travelers have faced because of Swift aren't confined to Europe. In the U.S., there have been numerous instances of people who needed to be in a particular city at a particular time, only to run into Swiftmania.

Swift's 2023 dates in Chicago, for example, coincided with the presentation of the James Beard awards, the restaurant's world equivalent of the Oscars and an annual event that brings many key people in the industry together.

Suddenly, those industry folks found themselves having to fork over big bucks for a room in town.

"Everyone was affected by it," said Shari Bayer, a New York-based restaurant publicist who attends the Chicago event annually. She said room rates were as much as double the normal prices. She paid about $500 a night.

"It was the talk of the awards," Bayer said of the Swift scheduling conflict.

Ultimately, it's a tough - and sometimes unavoidable - situation for travelers, said Cameron Sperance, a hotel expert with the Points Guy, a popular travel site. He noted that when it comes to hotel rooms tied to Swift dates, the price limit "does not exist."

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.

The other option? Sperance said this might be the perfect time to look at your hotel-rewards accounts and cash in any points for a stay.

That was a strategy employed by Michael Braun, a Swift fan who attended one of her shows in Zurich last week and then decided to spend a little extra vacation time in Milan. But Braun's plans were upended by the fact that Swift was playing Milan at the same time, so hotel rates were sky high.

So Braun book booked a room using points in his Marriott (MAR) 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.

-Charles Passy

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07-20-24 1125ET

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