A hotel booking surge has swept through Pittsburgh as visitors secure lodging for the NFL Draft, pushing North Shore and Downtown room rates to about $1,000 a night and selling out many hotels — even as numerous homes listed for rent remain available.
“We’re absolutely ecstatic about the booking pattern,” said Perry Ivery, general manager of The Oaklander Hotel and president of the Greater Pittsburgh Hotel Association. “We’ve got roughly 20 to 25 rooms left to sell, and we’re just under 50 days out, which puts us in a great position.”
As of Friday, Hyatt Place Pittsburgh/North Shore and Residence Inn Pittsburgh North Shore, along with Downtown hotels Fairfield Inn & Suites Pittsburgh Downtown, Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh Downtown and Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, were all sold out from April 23 to 25.
All of the hotels are within about two miles of Acrisure Stadium, where about half a million people are expected to pass through during the city’s largest tourism event ever, beginning April 23.
In December, TribLive reported that most hotels within walking distance of the draft site were priced between $650 and $815, with the exception of The Landing Hotel, located at Rivers Casino.
Rooms at The Landing Hotel were priced between $1,999 and $2,149 and remained the same more than two months later, the hotel website said on Friday.
Villagio Boutique Hotel, located in the heart of the city’s North Side neighborhood, had rooms listed for $2,300.
While the boutique hotel is a unique place to stay, due to its 1800s Victorian mansion aesthetic, the rooms are not usually priced nearly as high. Rooms available the week before and after the draft at the Villagio Boutique Hotel were priced between $120 and $190 a night, according to the hotel’s website.
Unlike many hotels within two miles from the draft site, Ivery said the Oaklander’s pricing only reaches the $1,000 price range for suites.
Hotels further out of town
Tourists who don’t mind staying even further outside of the city still have hotel options with prices comparable to standard stay rates.
Hampton Inn in Monroeville, SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Frazer, Quality Inn in Cranberry, Holiday Inn Express in Delmont and SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Latrobe had pricing within the $200 to $500 range between 12 and 45 miles away from the stadium, according to the hotel websites.
While hotel availability close to the stadium is limited, larger traveling groups looking to rent a home still have a number of options.
Chad Wise, founder of the vacation rental agency HostWise Stays, said fewer than 10% of the company’s available properties have been booked so far for 2026 NFL Draft week.
Wise said he believes that’s because many of the people traveling for the 2026 NFL Draft are not typical football fans, but corporate sponsors, athletes and celebrities who have chosen to book hotel room blocks instead of renting houses.
“From a corporate liability standpoint, a lot of companies are still hesitant to allow their travelers to book short-term rentals,” he said.
But Ivery said he has had a mix of travelers booking rooms.
“We have a couple corporations that have booked with us, but it’s a lot of transient guests too, so excited football fans come and see their favorite teams,” Ivery said.
Short-term rentals
Wise said hosts and tourists are playing a game of chicken when it comes to short-term rental properties.
“It remains to be seen whether they book everything at these inflated prices, or people have to start dropping their prices to get bookings,” Wise said.
HostWise Stays has short-term rentals available priced at anywhere from $120 to $7,000 a night, according to the website.
Allegheny County realtor Sandra Woncheck, who created an online website service that allows people to rent directly from homeowners during the draft had 26 properties listed on the site as available for rent.
Property prices on Accommodations For the Draft ranged from $500 to $10,000 plus, according to the website.
“I don’t know if anyone is getting a rental or not,” Woncheck.
Woncheck said she was unable to provide an estimate of how many of the properties had been rented, because once they go up on the website the renter contacts the property owner directly.
But Woncheck said that listings have picked up over the last couple of weeks, as people attempt to rent out their apartments, condos and homes.
