Springtime in Oxford brings a flurry of activities for the community to enjoy. Large weekend-long events like country music superstar Morgan Wallen’s concert, Double Decker Arts Festival, graduation and baseball games draw massive crowds to town.
These events increase tourism and demand for hotel rooms, often leaving those hoping to visit Oxford frustrated with high prices and forced to turn to out-of-town lodging and alternatives like Airbnb.
As of April 1, hotel rates for 2024 graduation weekend — May 10 through May 12 — rooms start at $799 a night at Home2 Suites by Hilton, $1,309 a night at The Courtyard By Marriott, $449 a night at The Hampton Inn and Conference Center off of Sisk Avenue and $417 a night The Hampton Inn Oxford-West. The Inn at Ole Miss is completely booked.
When demand falls, so do prices: a summer weekend at local hotel Graduate Oxford in July starts at $232 a night. The same room will cost $959 a night on graduation weekend.
Grace Glazier, an integrated marketing communications major from Tallahassee, Fla., said these prices inhibit her family’s visits to Oxford.
“My family does not get to come as often as they would like due to the continued rise in hotel costs and limited availability,” Glazier said. “For my upcoming graduation in May, my family had a hard time finding a room for everyone attending, even though we were eight months away.
The prices for the remaining rooms were through the roof. Thankfully, we were able to use a friend’s condo because otherwise, there was no way we would be able to all stay in Oxford.”
Multiple students reported having to book hotels beyond the limits of Oxford, sometimes in other North Mississippi cities like Batesville, Senatobia and Southaven.
“My family comes up all the time from our house on the coast. We often had trouble finding a hotel room in Oxford for big events,” Angele Holman, a sophomore allied health sciences major, said. “The 2023 Egg Bowl resulted in us having to stay at a hotel all the way in Batesville due to Oxford hotel rooms being fully booked. Not an ideal situation for sure.”
With hotel rooms in such high demand, Airbnb and other short-term rental services have risen in popularity in recent years.
According to AirDNA, Oxford has 737 active short-term rental listings and 1,333 listings in total between AirBnB and Vrbo. This is a 29% increase since 2023 in active listings.
The average daily rate for all short-term rentals is $542.20, a reported 13% increase from last year’s average.
Linda Lewis Raney is the owner of The Barn Nest, an Airbnb-listed house located 10 minutes outside of Oxford that she has operated for around 15 years.
Raney said that while many commercial hotels often use algorithms to adjust their prices, increases during major events are standard for all businesses.
“I’m going to get a minimum of twice as much for a game weekend or time. That’s a standard procedure for me and pretty much everyone,” Raney said. “It’s a supply-and-demand thing.”
On a normal day, Raney’s smallest room rents for around $115 dollars. On a game weekend, it ranges anywhere from $300 to $375.
Raney also shared that operating costs have gone up over the years, and expenses subtract around 50% from her net income.
“I try to keep up. I don’t let anything get old or frayed, certainly not dirty, and I used to attempt to make a light breakfast,” Raney said. “I’ve stopped doing that because of many reasons. The prices of pastries and things were going up so much, and people were just bumping out of town as fast as they could get.”
Among all short-term rental listings, only 16% were active for 271-365 nights within the past year, while 34% were open for 1-90 nights.
While there is no way to confirm this, Raney theorized that the 34% is people who rent out their primary residences during high-volume weekends..
“They put it on the market for games they don’t want to go to, (so) most of the time, it is not available. I cannot figure that part out,” Raney said. “But there’s a lot of competition for Airbnb.”
As for booking a hotel room or Airbnb on busy weekends, Raney urged students and their visitors to be proactive.
“I wish at Ole Miss orientations, one thing they would say is, ‘Book your graduation weekend now,’” Raney said. “I just talk to so many desperate people and feel for them.”
With Oxford and the University of Mississippi growing with every year, it is unlikely this problem will assuage itself.
“I want my family to be able to experience all the fun weekends and excitement that Oxford has to offer. It’s really hard being able to have them on these large weekends due to the high prices, large demand and limited vacancies,” Holman said. “I feel like these are the weekends that truly show off the true essence of Oxford.”
Raney encouraged potential Oxford visitors to plan their trips on off-weekends..
“One thing I want to say is, come to Oxford when it’s not an event weekend. It’s so much more fun, easier to get around and you can get a reservation,” she said.
Kharley Redmon contributed reporting.
