Gameday crowds increasingly moving north, staying in Cedar Rapids hotels

With the upcoming University of Iowa football game against the University of Michigan on Saturday, tailgaters and game attendees are looking for rooms further north.

Most of the hotels in Cedar Rapids are already booked for Saturday evening's game in Kinnick Stadium with rooms reserved for months, hotel managers say.

Josh Schamberger, director of the Iowa City/Coralville Convention and Visitors Bureau, said that's very common for Iowa football weekends, as well as any other major event in the city, such as graduation or the Olympic wrestling trials in April.

'We have 28,000 rooms in the community, and 65 to 70 percent are already sold on any given day,” Schamberger said. 'You can see why rooms sell up so quickly.”

Kim Frazier, general manager of Hometown Inn and Suites at 3315 Southgate Court SW, estimates about 80 to 90 percent of all rooms in Cedar Rapids are booked for football weekends.

'Any Iowa game that tends to be considered a big game will pretty much sell out Cedar Rapids,” said Frazier, who has managed the hotel for the past six years.

Schamberger noted hotels in Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty typically fill up before guests consider Cedar Rapids for an overnight stay.

'Visitors want to stay in proximity to what they're attending,” Schamberger explained.

Cheryl Du Charme, general manager of Red Roof Inn at 3243 Southridge Dr. SW in Cedar Rapids for the past six years, said football is the only University of Iowa sport that tends to bring crowds to Cedar Rapids.

Not only that, but Du Charme said she's noticed a trend in guests booking rooms with how well the team is performing.

'As the team went undefeated, the influx of people wanting to stay in the area went up,” Du Charme said. 'This year, it started out way in advance. We sold out for this weekend already in August. For the homecoming game, we were booked in May.”

Du Charme said Red Roof Inn was booking rooms for individuals attending University of Northern Iowa football games - some 65 miles away - when the team was on its winning streak.

'When UNI two years ago was doing really well, we got business from that,” she said. 'We didn't necessarily fill, but we had an influx of business of people wanting to see them.”

Du Charme and Frazier said they double their staff during the influx of guests on gameday, including housekeepers, maintenance and front desk workers.

Despite the distance, the Cedar Rapids hotel managers say some guests find the roughly 30-mile trip worth the cost efficiency. Room prices are nearly doubled in Iowa City, and several hotels have a two-night minimum requirement for guests.

'If they're out $40 for gas, versus $120 for the night, they're going to take it,” Frazier said.

To help alleviate a metro area bursting at its seams on the weekends, Schamberger said he has a good relationship with Go Cedar Rapids to help visitors find a place to stay outside the area.

Schamberger said there also are several hotels under construction or in the planning stages in the Iowa City/Coralville area, including a 145-room Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Iowa City and construction of a $34.4 million Drury Hotel in Iowa River Landing set to begin this spring.