Solar Eclipse travelers getting left in the dark with sold-out hotel bookings

Bookings for hotels and other overnight accommodations in the path of totality for the April 8 solar eclipse are up across the nation. This is causing people to get creative about finding other sleeping arrangements, like renting mobile tents.

Missouri is in the path of Monday’s eclipse, which is projected to enter from Mexico into Texas, then journey across 14 states before crossing from Maine into Canada. Gregorio Strayhorn, the general manager at Town House Inn just outside of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, said his place is sold out and that he’s turning down dozens of travelers at this point.

“We’re booked up!” Strayhorn said. He says people started booking rooms for the eclipse a year ago, but didn’t know why those dates were filling up so fast.

“Then they said they wanted April 7 for the [night of the] eclipse in 2024. And we was amazed,” Strayhorn said. 

Strayhorn said he raised his prices like other local hotels are doing, but a dozen or so calls kept coming every day regardless.

“We [are] receiving 10, 15 calls a day that I got to turn down because we don’t have any room for these people,” Strayhorn said. 

Travel bookings in the path of totality have increased by an average of 900%, according to Adara. Some room costs are up almost 250 percent, according to Navan.

Even if you’re willing to shell out the cash, there may not be many rooms available. People are finding other ways to cheaply see the eclipse.

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“There’s a guy looking for a place to park his truck and pitch a tent, and he was gonna pay us to do it. He said he gave us $75 to pitch a tent. He wasn’t gonna pay those crazy hotel prices,” said Michelle Mangrum who lives in Jackson, Missouri. 

Camping is one alternative, but if you want to watch the eclipse without all the nature, there’s an option to camp while feeling like you are in a hotel. Keegan Graves owns a company called Homestead Camp, where the luxury camping is mobile. 

“What it comes with typically is a queen bed, and it’s a real queen bed too. It’s got, you know, a full 10-inch memory foam mattress and table dressers, chairs, rugs,” Graves said. 

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Graves said he has bookings specifically for the eclipse, and he plans to watch it from one, too.

The booking site Hopper recommends if you still want to plan a last-minute trip to see the eclipse, check event sites for special hotel deals and try to lock in any rental cars as soon as possible.