For Super Bowl weekend, Phoenix-area hotel room rates have soared

We hope Super Bowl XLIX fans who bought tickets for the Feb. 1 game near Phoenix next year already booked a hotel room. If not, there’ll be a stiff price to pay.

Hotel room prices have skyrocketed in and around the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., where the NFL showdown will take place.

Travel booking site Cheaphotels.org conducted a survey of room prices on Nov. 15, and the news was not good.

“Currently only about one in 10 hotels in the greater Phoenix region still have vacancies for the Super Bowl weekend of Jan. 30 to Feb. 2,” the website says.

Four- and five-star hotels have sold out, and even budget hotels have raised prices more than 300% above their usual rates.

I checked hotel websites Tuesday afternoon and found rooms available at these prices:

--Best available rate at La Quinta Inn & Suites Phoenix I-10 West about 10 miles from the stadium starts at $849 a night for Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 rooms. The following weekend the same rooms start at $99.

--Gaslight Inn bed and breakfast in Glendale about five miles from the stadium had four of 10 rooms left starting at $1,000 a night. The same rooms start at $110 a night the next weekend.

--Travelodge Phoenix North about 15 miles from the stadium still has availability for rooms at $400 a night, instead of the $59 price a week later.

I also searched dates on Hotels.com and found bargain hotels such as the Red Roof Inn and Super 8 rooms selling for $210 a night and more. Only Motel 6 at 2330 W. Bell Road in Phoenix about 20 miles from the stadium showed a few $76 rooms.

Whether hotels will lower their prices as the game gets closer is a toss-up. For now, you’re stuck with the option of budget rooms at five-star prices.