It’s that time of year again — Super Bowl weekend is upon us.
On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs will return to the big game for the third consecutive season, facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, hotels are bracing for an uptick in tourism to New Orleans that is poised to put pressure on the city’s limited hotel supply. The influx of visitors is also slated to drive ADR and RevPAR growth.
But will the hotel performance gains from this year’s game rival those of Super Bowls past? Ahead of the showdown, Hotel Dive spoke with industry professionals and gathered forecast data to gauge the impact of Super Bowl LIX on the hospitality market.
Event expectations
More than 100,000 visitors are expected in New Orleans from Thursday, Feb. 6, through Sunday, Feb. 9, JLL shared with Hotel Dive.
Caesars Superdome has a capacity of 76,500, and it’s typical to see total city visitation that’s 50% higher than stadium capacity, as “many people travel to the market to attend the various events surrounding the game itself,” Zach Demuth, global head of hotels research in JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group, told Hotel Dive.
Given the significant growth in experience-driven travel over the last five years and the fact that New Orleans has “historically been one of the epicenters of experience tourism,” it is likely that this year’s Super Bowl will drive significant demand, Demuth said. That demand, in turn, is slated to drive “exceptionally high RevPAR” for area hotels, according to JLL.
As of Feb. 3, occupancy on the books for New Orleans hotels Friday through Sunday of Super Bowl weekend was peaking at 90.1% the night before the game, according to an STR outlook. Occupancy levels could rise further, given STR’s data was recorded on Jan. 27, only one day after the Chiefs and Eagles secured their spots in the big game, per the company.
According to Demuth, occupancy in the market is expected to climb above 95% for the Thursday-to-Monday Super Bowl period.
For New Orleans’ central business district/French Quarter submarket, specifically, occupancy on the books was at a high of 96.5% for the Friday night before the game as of Jan. 27, according to STR.
ADR, meanwhile, is slated to grow 35% year over year, contributing to 43% growth in RevPAR for the weekend, according to STR. ADR for Friday through Sunday of Super Bowl weekend in New Orleans is projected to be $444, with RevPAR reaching $393, per STR.
This means the market’s Super Bowl growth rates have the potential to rank in the top five historically, the company noted.
Super Bowl comparatives
ADR for this year’s big game is anticipated to be significantly lower than rates in Las Vegas for last year’s Super Bowl LVIII.
2024’s game drove record-breaking hotel performance in Las Vegas, with rates surpassing preliminary predictions. ADRs in Sin City reached $768 for the 2024 event weekend, with RevPAR at $634, according to STR.
With the performance results, Las Vegas surpassed the former record-holder for Super Bowl weekend ADR: Miami’s $559 Super Bowl ADR in 2020.
New Orleans ADR for this year’s match is anticipated to trail behind other Super Bowl host cities as well, including Phoenix, which saw ADR at $536 in 2023, and San Francisco, which saw ADR at $452 in 2016, according to STR.
New Orleans’ hospitality market is smaller than other host cities’, JLL noted. With roughly 43,000 hotel rooms, the Louisiana city’s market is less than a quarter the size of Las Vegas’ (173,000 rooms) and about half the size of typical host cities’, per JLL.
Market overview
Hotels in New Orleans include Caesars Entertainment’s $435 million Harrah’s redevelopment, which spans 790 rooms, 54 of which are Nobu-branded. There is also the 226-room Le Pavillon Hotel, recently converted under Marriott International’s Tribute Portfolio.
The city has short-term rental accommodations that are cashing in on Super Bowl weekend as well, according to Julie Brinkman, CEO at revenue management platform Beyond.
“We saw hotels book up as early as late January for the Super Bowl this year — and though short term rentals are still showing some availability, we anticipate this number getting close to booked up by the end of this week,” Brinkman told Hotel Dive.
Akin to prior host cities, Demuth expects hotel demand will spread beyond New Orleans’ city limits as well as to alternative accommodations.
“It’s worth noting that New Orleans implemented relatively restrictive short-term rental legislation, so the number of Airbnb listings is somewhat limited in the market,” he said. “We expect nearly all lodging accommodations to be full across the market.”
