San Diego ComicCon May Be Leaving San Diego, Due to Hotel Price-Gouging | Hacker News Reader

San Diego ComicCon May Be Leaving San Diego, Due to Hotel Price-Gouging

forbes.com

I thought this was interesting:

this problem continues to get worse despite more hotels being built nearby. “It doesn’t have to do with supply. It has to do with allocated room blocks in those properties.”

some hotels have been making fewer and fewer rooms available in the [discounted] blocks, knowing they can charge top dollar on the open market.

The con negotiated a lower rate, but since demand is so high and users will still pay top dollar, the hotels see less and less reason to bargain.

I don't know how true the supply quote is - California is quite adverse to building anything.

"It doesn't have to do with supply" is fairly obviously false. There isn't a supply problem in the sense that there are enough hotel rooms to fit everyone attending the con. However, there is insufficient supply for the hotels to have to compete to fill rooms. ComicCon doesn't have negotiating leverage because the hotels know that they'll sell out (or be close enough) even if they don't participate in the discounted blocks, which wouldn't be the case if there was a surplus of hotel rooms.

ComicCon needs to find a distressed property, obtaining financing (based on their annual convention P&L and attendance numbers) to buy it, and manage it. While this sounds extreme, it is no different than buying a property to live in because you are unwilling or unable to be exposed to volatile rental markets where your rent increases can outpace your income, or you are unable to find a rental entirely. Same thing for DefCon (Caesars abruptly terminated their contract). In negotiation, the party with the most power wins, and currently these conventions have no power over the lodging industry (who is attempting to maximize revenue and profits).

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/2...

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-how-cha...

https://www.costar.com/article/631164910/revenue-experts-don...

Seems like obvious solution is to aggressively reduce demand. Make the con more expensive or lot less desirable. That will reduce visitors and thus demand for rooms and thus lower the prices or direct the hotels to offer deals to fill the capacity.

Frankly I'm shocked it took them this long. Hotel taxes in San Diego county are insane!

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