On normal trips, lodging is a big expense. That can be an even larger issue when the cash price of hotels for big events (like football games & graduations) rise sharply with demand.
As huge Tennessee football fans, some of our favorite trips are to watch the Vols play in Knoxville. When 100,000 of our closest friends come to town, hotel prices skyrocket. Even graduation can pull in an extra 20,000 people and impact hotel rates.
For example, rooms at the Knoxville Hyatt Place are normally $100-200 per night but spiked to $585 for our daughter’s graduation weekend. And on the 3rd Saturday in October, our arch-rival Alabama comes to town and Hyatt rooms are an incredible $1,992 after tax!
Fortunately, we’ve got a way to (usually) get hotel rooms for free when there’s a high-demand event: Hotel Points!
Save Money with Hotel Points
For Kendall’s graduation, my 90-year-old father made the trip with us so we needed 2 adjoining rooms. Instead of $2340 for 2 rooms for 2 nights, we used 38k Hyatt points and our stay was totally free!
For this year’s Alabama football game, we used 27k Hyatt points instead of paying $3984.16 for 2 nights in a single room. That means each Hyatt point is worth a staggering 14.8 cents each!
That’s fully 4x my historical Hyatt points value of 3.7 cents based on my last 56 trips!
While we’d never pay $4,000 cash for 2 nights at this hotel, we LOVE that we’re in the perfect location to enjoy a big game weekend with thousands of other fans. And we’re staying for free!
Find Free Hotels with Points
Want to find great deals to attend your favorite team’s big games without paying incredibly inflated prices? Here’s what I found for cash prices and points prices for hotels near big events that we want to attend.
While these prices will change, and you might follow a different team, I want to inspire you to save money on hotels so you can attend more ballgames and other big events.
Methodology
There are 9 hotels near UT’s Neyland Stadium that you can book with points. For the upcoming season, I mainly used Google Hotels, the hotel’s websites, and the excellent MaxMyPoints tool to check current cash and points prices.
I first researched these prices about a month before football season. Then I updated the remaining games in September after 2 home games and 2 road games.
We’re 4-0 as of this update!
Football Games: Hotel Cash & Points Prices
TN Vols vs Florida Gators 10/12
- Cumberland House: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1386 per night or 50,000 points
- Hampton Inn and Suites: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1193 per night or 60,000 points
- Marriott Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1461 per night
- Hilton Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1470 or 60,000 points
- Residence Inn Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $999 per night
- Courtyard Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1796 per night
- Hyatt Place Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1796 per night
- Embassy Suites Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $2756 or 60,000 points
- Crowne Plaza Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1061 or 120,000 points
TN Vols vs Alabama 10/19
- Cumberland House: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1952 or 798,000 points
- Hampton Inn and Suites: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1391 or 475,000 points
- Marriott Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1250 per night
- Hilton Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1746 or 652,000 points
- Residence Inn Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1250 per night
- Courtyard Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1184 per night
- Hyatt Place Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1796 per night
- Embassy Suites Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $2774 or 834,000 points
- Crowne Plaza Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1184 per night
TN Vols vs Kentucky 11/2
- Cumberland House: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1519 or 50,000 points
- Hampton Inn and Suites: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $834 or 60,000 points
- Marriott Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $719 per night
- Hilton Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $909 or 60,000 points
- Residence Inn Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $367 or 46,000 points
- Courtyard Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $350 or 46,000 points
- Hyatt Place Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1091 or 18,000 points
- Embassy Suites Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $1529 or 60,000 points
- Crowne Plaza Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $821 or 120,000 points
TN Vols vs UTEP 11/23
- Cumberland House: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $457 or 50,000 points
- Hampton Inn and Suites: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $440 or 60,000 points
- Marriott Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $417 or 59,000 points
- Hilton Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $441 or 60,000 points
- Residence Inn Knoxville: $367 or 46k Marriott points
- Updated: Still $367 or 46,000 points
- Courtyard Knoxville: $350 or 46k Marriott points
- Updated: Still $350 or 46,000 points
- Hyatt Place Knoxville: $550 or 15k Hyatt points
- Updated: Still $554 or 15,000 points
- Embassy Suites Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $551 or 60,000 points
- Crowne Plaza Knoxville: $465 or 85k IHG points
- Updated: $430 or 79,500 points
College Football Playoffs (I Hope!) 12/20 or 12/21
- Cumberland House: $832 or 50k Hilton points
- Updated: $1758 or 50,000 points
- Hampton Inn and Suites: $270 or 60k Hilton points
- Updated: $821 or 280,000 points
- Marriott Knoxville: $734 or 59k Marriott points
- Updated: $889 or 59,000 points
- Hilton Knoxville: Previously SOLD OUT
- Updated: $744 or 60,000 points
- Residence Inn Knoxville: $632 or 46k Marriott points
- Updated: $760 or 46,000 points
- Courtyard Knoxville: $615 or 46k Marriott points
- Updated: $863 or 46,000 points
- Hyatt Place Knoxville: $255 or 12k Hyatt points
- Updated: $735 or 12,000 points
- Embassy Suites Knoxville: $563 or 60k Hilton points
- Updated: $1542 or 60,000 points
- Crowne Plaza Knoxville: $327 or 57k IHG points
- Updated: $478 or 84,000 points
Analysis & Best Deals
It’s never too late to look for free/cheap hotels for big events! Even if it’s last minute, you may be able to find rooms in the heart of the action which can be booked for little or no out-of-pocket cost!
Book Early
Since we’re only a few weeks before the season starts, it’s no surprise that hotels for most of these games are totally sold out. However, I’m kind of surprised to see that most hotels still have free nights available for our home opener against UT Chattanooga… because it’s almost Football Time In Tennessee!
I recommend looking for rooms at least 6 months out to have a better chance of finding free rooms on points. For example, I booked the October UT Alabama game in February, 8 months before the game.
Speculative, Refundable Booking
But the most interesting thing is that all downtown Knoxville hotels (except the Hilton) have free nights available for the College Football Playoff dates of December 20 & 21.
While there’s only a small chance that UT is in the 12-team CFP & will have a home game, it would be a historic event that I don’t want to miss. So I made a fully refundable, speculative booking for 2 nights in downtown Knoxville for only 12k Hyatt points per night.
If we make the Playoffs, Zuzu & I will be downtown for this epic spectacle, and our room, breakfast & parking will cost us nothing.
Book Your CFP Room Now
If you’re a fan of another team & you think you’ve got a chance of being #5-8 in the CFP, you should book a room NOW for the CFP 1st round dates! If you book it on points, you can usually cancel for free up until the last day or week.
How to Get Points for Free Gameday Hotels
Want to earn enough points to get free hotels for big events like football games?
Or maybe you already have some points but want to OPTIMIZE how you earn and redeem points for free travel. Here are some resources that show exactly what we do to travel more for less!
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