I agree that the only question is weather. Unfortunately it's a big question. I'm coming down from Cleveland with my Bucknut brother, who I'm slowly converting. I've already prepaid for my Athens hotel, which literally cost more per night than the Bellagio (ouch!). I bought the mini season ticket pack just to get good seats to this game. I have no intention of missing it.

My brother and I will probably be coming down from Wisconsin for the Kent game and Miami game. Could be a massive week for Ohio basketball.

the one thing that will keep us from bringing people back.....said it for years, the hotels got us by the short hairs   (cue the lecture on supply and demand that ALWAYS ensues)

 

Totally agree with you on this.  Big raking over the coals happens on EVERY event weekend.

If you owned the hotel, wouldn't you do it? It makes up for the times when no one is staying at the hotel. I guess you had an 8am econ class you were snoozing through.

Their daily price is 110 bucks when there is nothing going on. Best you are gonna get is 89 if you know the staff and pay them compliments each time you stay ANNNNDDD show them your HOnors card.

And as if on Cue....from my post above.....the economics lecture starts.

I travel from coast to coast...Iit seems as if one of .the only places I can t get folks to come off the  price in a less than half full hotel is Athens. It is an anomaly that does not exist anywhere else I have been. Usually I can get a room down to at least half price on an off night whether it is in Scottsbluff or down town Pittsburgh. Not sure if the fact that they have the only game in town during high capacity weekends entitles them to automatically fleece the public. In my case I found alternatives by not staying over and finding places further away. The ill will generated did me in.

We have had fulll on lectures here in BA about elasticilty and demand and macro and micro economics. I understand and I understand as the parent of an athlere that when folk who are parents of recruits ask about Athens I ALWAYS warn them about the hotel situation.

That wont happen.....They will turn them into the Highlander or a Knights Inn like on the other end of State with Punjab remarking  "OH Meester Freeaaman we do not have a the very good rate so much on this day as it is a special weekend, your 41 dollar room will be one hundred nineteen tonite tankyouveddymuch" .
 
In a wonderful article on Motorcycling Southeast OHIO's roads they are very up on Burr Oak and use it as their base of operations and imply that it is very motorcycle friendly for touring cycles and folks who really want to see the area. A boon for tournism and the economy but I can't see it being very alluring or having legs with growth potential with the pricing structure. Good for me because it will stay the way it is instead of becoming the Ohio version of Deal's Gap and I can ride unfettered through the twisties of the Hocking Hills and surrounding areas.  

I really enjoyed the weekends we spent at lake Hope cabins. For the price they are just phenomenal. Just very hard to get there after a night on Court Street as many of you that I have seen out already know. THe cab just does not head clear on out there.

One of the best lines I have ever seen about bicycling or motorcycling backroads is in this article

After two full days in southeastern Ohio, I concluded that back roads here are like guns, knives and electricity: approach them with respect or you may quickly be in over your head.

....I would only add that the folks who inhabit those roads be treated withthe same respect

I haven't stayed in Athens for some time. The last time we stayed in Parkersburg. Please tell me  how much the rooms typically are during a big weekend. It seems to me that if people were not staying there, as many of you say you will not, then over time they would have to lower their price or stay empty.

Believe me, those rooms won't be empty that weekend.  Dad's weekend probably trailed Homecoming and Graduation in Athens, but that is about it.

Everybody wants a good deal and the "priceline mentality" is alive and well. It can and does work, but not all the time, as in this case. You know, this is America. Somebody who thinks there is demand for hotel rooms in Athens can build a hotel.

You would have to have your own money, because I can not see a financial institution making a loan to build or add to any hotel in that area right now.  If you had enough cash on hand to do that, chances are that you have enough pull in the area to help with the local building codes, etc.