Overbooked Hamptons hotels spark bidding wars

Luxury inns float incentives to forego bookings as vacationers offer to double room rates

Overbooked Hamptons hotels spark bidding wars
(iStock)

Looking for lodging in the Hamptons this summer? Prepare to pay above the going room rate — and possibly enter a bidding war with a hip-hop artist.

If the price is right, hotels are plying customers who have already booked rooms with perks and comps to swap them out for deeper-pocketed bidders, Page Six reported.

Michael Pitsinos, owner of the upscale restaurant Naia at the Capri Hotel in Southampton, said some desperate vacationers are bidding up to five figures a night to stay there.

“It’s like ‘Hamptons Hotels Gone Wild’ out here these days,” he said.

Rappers Young Thug and Travis Scott recently partied at the Capri, the tabloid reported. When it came time to call it a night, Young Thug reportedly booked all available rooms in the hotel for $1,500 a bed. A source told Page Six that others tried to overtake the rapper with $5,000 bids for rooms, but were rebuffed.

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Zach Erdem, who owns the Harpoon House, also said people calling to offer more than double the amounts they booked for hotel rooms, fearful of being outbid. Erdem said rooms were going for anywhere from $1,200 to $2,500, leaving him wistful that he doesn’t own more hotels during the escalating bidding wars.

Hamptons hotels are booming as people look to enjoy their post-pandemic summer. While people are competing for two- or three-night stays, home buying in the Hamptons has steadily waned, down in June for the fourth straight month.

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[Page Six] — Holden Walter-Warner