Kansas City experienced from the "Taylor Swift effect” in more ways than one en route to the Chiefs' third Super Bowl in five years, and it was perhaps most felt by upper-tier hotels.
Premium hotels that hosted NFL fans during home Kansas City Chiefs games benefited from the addition of Swifties seeking to get a glimpse of the global entertainment phenom after she started attending games to watch her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Swift's first appearance was Sept. 24, the Chiefs’ second home game. But her attendance that week was somewhat of a surprise to fans, and hotels weren’t prepared to take advantage of the excitement.
By the third home game on Oct. 12, Swift and Kelce were the world’s most public romance story, and Kansas City hotels performance improved significantly around that and the Chiefs' remaining home games of the season. That does not include the Chiefs' designated "home game" against the Miami Dolphins played in Frankfurt, Germany, on Nov. 5.
While Swift's appearance, and the possibility of an appearance, might not share a direct correlation with hotel performance, the data shows a noticeable lift.
After the pop superstar's appearance, the average occupancy rates for the following seven games were 30% higher than those in the 2022 season. Average daily rates were 8% higher, and revenue per available room was 41% higher than for home games in 2022.
Hotel performance also benefited from other events taking place in Kansas City at the same time as home games, including on Oct. 12 when Jason Aldean played at the T-Mobile Center while the Chiefs hosted the Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium. However, concerts of this magnitude did not take place at the same time as any of the following home games.
Joe DeMarco, senior vice president of revenue at Coury Hospitality, which manages the Ambassador Hotel Kansas City, said average daily rate at the hotel was up 13.5% year over year on days when Swift attended a Chiefs home game.
Although DeMarco said it can be hard to quantify the actual effect Swift’s presence had on hotel rates, the lift is enough to raise some eyebrows.
“When you’re seeing rates bubble at 13% over — we would’ve expected maybe 4% or 5% — there’s something more to that,” he said.
Jeff Keeley, general manager at InterContinental Kansas City At The Plaza, said he didn’t think Swift's game attendance had a significant impact on local hotel performance.
“Obviously for her concert it did, but on game weekends, this is such a Chiefs-driven town that the Chiefs are the main draw,” he said. “There was probably more interest elsewhere via social media and ‘Is she going to be here; is she not going to be here?’ and people wanting to [see] her more than driving rates.”
Whether or not Swift’s presence had an effect on hotel performance, it generated excitement and buzz around the city, DeMarco said. DeMarco, who is a Chiefs season-ticket holder, said there were crowds of people just trying to get a glimpse of Swift at her Arrowhead Stadium suite.
“You’d have thought the president was there or Gandhi or something like that. … It is superstardom at a whole other level,” he said. “This is probably the biggest superstar in the world. It’s something that Kansas City and Arrowhead has had to adjust to, having this mega-star in our small city.”
The InterContinental introduced Taylor Swift- and Travis Kelce-inspired cocktails and mocktails, and the hotel sold out of all ingredients for the drinks for several weeks, Keeley said. Next season, he said, the hotel plans to add some Swift-related food options to the mix.
DeMarco said the Ambassador Hotel Kansas City will continue to adjust rates according to the demand, which was "through the roof" during the 2023 season.
"There’s already a draw to see [Chiefs quarterback] Patrick Mahomes and whomever they play, and Arrowhead is a fun, iconic space to begin with,” he said. “This just adds to the fire of the Chiefs games and the aura of everything; so yes, we’re going to be probably pricing a little bit higher if you want to see that A-list celebrity, and we all will be.”
Call it what you want to, but the Taylor Swift effect is on full display in Kansas City while hotel performance is budding.
“She certainly has an effect. I just don’t think it was on the hotel industry, but she’s driven a lot of other things around the town,” Keeley said.