Rock in Rio: Record hotel room pricing anticipated in Rio de Janeiro for the 2024 music festival

Carnival and Rock in Rio – these are the unrivaled kings of the Rio de Janeiro events calendar. The latter returns in 2024 and it’s as big, if not bigger, than ever.

According to Lighthouse's forward-looking demand indicators, there is a significant level of interest in accommodation, which presents an excellent opportunity for local hoteliers to optimize their pricing strategies well in advance of the event.

While room rates may have already peaked, there’s still an opportunity for hotels to generate more revenue during the periods between and around the festival’s key headliner dates.

Demand indicators bode well for Rock in Rio 2024

Looking at our demand indicators, everything is screaming heightened demand for the festival, which typically attracts over 700,000 cumulative attendees.

Based on our proprietary market demand level measurement, the days of the festival, which this year occur from 13th September to 22nd, tower over any other period in the next 365 days.

Interest in Rio accommodation peaks when artists occupy the main stage on 14th and 19th-22nd. Here, our market demand indicator is displaying interest at around 3x the typical level we would expect for an average day.

A large part of this high level is that consumers are chasing a rapidly dwindling supply, even before the complete line-up has been announced and tickets released to the public.

Already across those two main periods for the festival, 41% of hotels in our database are listed as unavailable, meaning they are not posting inventory for these key dates at the time of writing. This is largely a result of selling out or withholding remaining inventory.

Searches for the key dates are comparatively high, especially within those key peak periods where the current search volume is around four to five times higher than the surrounding dates.

Hotel festival pricing surpasses the 2022 festival and Rio Carnival 2024

Naturally, this is taking hotel room prices to exceptionally high levels, particularly during the high demand peaks mentioned above. These demand peaks correlate perfectly with Rio’s highest advertised room rates.

In local Brazilian reais, rooms are priced highest during the second main period for the festival at BRL1776 on 20th September, slightly ahead of the prior peak during the opening weekend of BRL1735.

This significant increase in hotel room prices is in stark contrast to the stability observed during other periods. Typically, room prices in the city range between BRL 650-750. Therefore, the current surge in prices represents an almost three-fold increase from the usual rates.

Advertised room prices for Rock in Rio are currently surpassing the rates seen during Rio Carnival 2024 (which ran from 9-17 February) where average room prices across all star ratings peaked at BRL 1132.

But this might be the ceiling for hotel room pricing

However, we may be seeing the peak potential for hotel pricing currently.

Let’s compare these rates to those seen in the 2022 Rock in Rio event.

In the previous iteration average prices during the two weeks of the event came in at BRL1208 and BRL1175, compared to BRL1349 and BRL1192 in a like-for-like timeframe.

That puts 2024 prices in the first week 12% above the last time the festival was held and a mere 1% above in the second week, in nominal terms. Factor in inflation, and 2024 prices are higher in the first week in real terms, but less in the second week.

Furthermore, average prices posted 90 days ago for the festival period deviate very little from currently posted rates and, when compared to 14 days ago, have in fact declined slightly.

These rates therefore may be near the top of the possible pricing curve.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t more revenue potential for hoteliers to be found within and surrounding the Rock in Rio festival though.

As we can see in the demand, availability and pricing charts, there is a considerable drop in between the two peaks. This represents a space for hoteliers to make the most of and encourage more bookings at premium rates.

Already the share of hotels in Rio with two-day length of stay discounts has more than doubled since September 2023 to just under 9%. This may be a sign of the market recognising the potential and it may be wise to follow suit.

Summary

Overall, Rock in Rio represents an excellent opportunity for hoteliers, with higher peak prices than its previous iteration and extremely strong demand indicators. While current rates may be near the maximum possible, there is plenty of interest among travelers and there appears to be high value in trying to push consumers to lengthen their stays in and around the festival.  

Evidently, there are a lot of factors to consider when deciding on the best room rate at your hotel - which is amplified when big events roll into town and it’s time to capitalize on inflated demand.

Having to monitor persistent market changes when setting your price, takes huge amounts of manual analysis and remains somewhat of a guessing game, meaning that you risk leaving money on the table. 

This is where a pricing recommendation tool comes into play.

Lighthouse's Pricing Manager is designed specifically for independent hotel operators, effortlessly providing automated dynamic room pricing at your property.

Eliminate the need for manual adjustments and guessing games with your room rates - freeing up your time to focus on what truly counts, your guests.

With tailored and transparent AI-driven room price recommendations you can tap into additional revenue streams, such as maximizing revenue around key events with optimal pricing, while saving precious time in the process.