How RoomSpike works
Hotels raise prices when a lot of people need rooms on the same night. RoomSpike looks up what's happening in a city on your dates, explains which nights are expensive and why, and prices hotels within 25 miles of your event so you can see what you'd save by staying a little farther out.
What makes a night expensive
Each night gets points (at most 3 events per night count). 4 or more is high, 2–3 is elevated.
- NFL or college football home game, or a major ticketed sports event: +3, and +1 the night before (fans arrive early)
- Concert, show, or other Ticketmaster event at a large venue (stadium, arena, amphitheater, convention center): +2. Smaller club and theater shows are listed but don't count.
- NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, WNBA, or men's college basketball game: +1
- Federal holiday: +2, and +1 the night before
- Thanksgiving week or Christmas through New Year: +2
- Friday or Saturday night, spring-break season, or summer season: +1 each
Big cities always have something on. For each city we work out how much event activity a typical night has (the median over the next 90 days) and only count events above that (football games and stadium events always count in full), so a normal night in New York doesn't look like a festival.
Cheaper dates are same-length stays within two weeks that score lower. The price calendar under them comes from booking-site data for hotels near your venue.
Hotel prices
- Hotels and nightly rates come from Xotelo, a free service that reports TripAdvisor partner prices (Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, hotel websites and others).
- We search hotels within 25 miles (straight line) of the venue, or of the city center for city searches. We price the 5 closest hotels plus the 7 that are usually cheapest, and you can check more.
- "Save $X/night" compares a hotel's lowest rate to the median of the closest hotels.
- Rates are the lowest offer we found, before taxes and fees. They are cached for up to 6 hours. Confirm before you book.
- Booking links: RoomSpike doesn't take bookings. When partner programs are set up, hotels may show links to Booking.com, Expedia or Hotels.com; we may earn a commission, which never affects the order or the prices shown.
- A hotel with no rate usually means it's sold out on those dates or isn't listed by booking partners.
Where the event data comes from
- Game schedules: ESPN public scoreboards (NFL, college football, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, men's college basketball), next 150 days, refreshed daily.
- Concerts and shows: Ticketmaster Discovery API, on.
- Venue locations: OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) for ESPN venues; Ticketmaster venue coordinates when available.
- Holidays: Nager.Date public holiday API.
Current event data: 1,190 games and 78,489 Ticketmaster events, 2026-10-27 to 2027-03-25, updated Oct 27, 12:35 PM CT.
Cities covered
RoomSpike covers 56 metro areas with pro or major college teams. In cities marked "demand only", we can explain prices and suggest dates but don't have live hotel rates yet.
| Metro | Hotel rates |
|---|---|
| Ames (Iowa State), IA | Live |
| Ann Arbor (Michigan), MI | Demand only |
| Athens (UGA), GA | Demand only |
| Atlanta, GA | Live |
| Austin, TX | Live |
| Baltimore, MD | Live |
| Baton Rouge (LSU), LA | Live |
| Boston, MA | Live |
| Buffalo, NY | Live |
| Charlotte, NC | Live |
| Chicago, IL | Live |
| Cincinnati, OH | Demand only |
| Cleveland, OH | Live |
| Columbus, OH | Live |
| Dallas–Fort Worth, TX | Live |
| Denver, CO | Live |
| Detroit, MI | Live |
| Green Bay, WI | Demand only |
| Houston, TX | Live |
| Indianapolis, IN | Demand only |
| Iowa City (Iowa), IA | Live |
| Jacksonville, FL | Live |
| Kansas City, MO | Live |
| Knoxville (Tennessee), TN | Demand only |
| Las Vegas, NV | Live |
| Lexington, KY | Live |
| Lincoln (Nebraska), NE | Live |
| Los Angeles, CA | Live |
| Louisville, KY | Live |
| Madison, WI | Live |
| Memphis, TN | Live |
| Miami, FL | Live |
| Milwaukee, WI | Live |
| Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN | Live |
| Nashville, TN | Live |
| New Orleans, LA | Live |
| New York City, NY | Live |
| Oklahoma City, OK | Live |
| Orlando, FL | Demand only |
| Philadelphia, PA | Live |
| Phoenix, AZ | Live |
| Pittsburgh, PA | Live |
| Portland, OR | Live |
| Raleigh–Durham, NC | Live |
| Sacramento, CA | Live |
| Salt Lake City, UT | Live |
| San Antonio, TX | Live |
| San Diego, CA | Live |
| San Francisco Bay Area, CA | Live |
| Seattle, WA | Live |
| South Bend (Notre Dame), IN | Demand only |
| St. Louis, MO | Live |
| State College (Penn State), PA | Demand only |
| Tampa Bay, FL | Live |
| Tuscaloosa (Alabama), AL | Live |
| Washington, DC, DC | Live |