Traveling to DC for the Inauguration? Check Out These Articles First…

Posted by Taylor , Nov, 2008 @ 8:30 am

If you are thinking about making a trip to DC for the inauguration, start making reservations, and be prepared to spend a lot of money.

If you live in or around DC, you might be able to profit from the event. Lodging is a hot commodity, and you could end up making a nice chunk of change by offering your place.

There have been lots of great articles about traveling to DC for the inauguration. Let’s see what they are saying:

CNN.com

Entry to the biggest event in Washington is free if your congressman or senator grants your request, but with demand outpacing supply a traditional giveaway has turned into a thriving online marketplace.

Legitimate ticket brokers — the same companies that peddle tickets to rock concerts and NASCAR races — are selling tickets to the swearing-in of Barack Obama for thousands of dollars, even for standing-room areas on the National Mall.

SFGate.com

“If people are serious about coming to the inauguration, they need to act now because prices are going up and supply is tightening – it’s like the Super Bowl,” said Bill Hanbury, president of Destination DC, the city’s convention and visitors bureau. “People are going to try some really innovative solutions. They will be crashing on sofas of friends and family. Church groups will get connected with other church groups, and they are going to be sleeping in basements and cafeterias.”

Report on lodging from the NY Times:

There are about 95,000 hotel rooms in the Washington area, including Fairfax and Arlington, Va. A few were still showing availability in a recent search at Destination D.C.’s Web site, www.washington.org, but rooms weren’t cheap. The Kellogg Conference Hotel, located on the campus of Gallaudet University, listed rooms from $618.75 a night from Jan. 17 to Jan. 21. Starting rates at the Hilton Washington Embassy Row were listed from $949.

ShermansTravel.com included the Days Inn Baltimore Inner Harbor from $135 a night, the Doubletree Hotel Bethesda from $299 a night, and the Georgetown Inn from $429 a night, in a list of affordable hotel options for the inauguration.

No tickets? Don’t even bother looking on eBay. They decided to ban selling tickets to the inauguration online. Here is what the Register reported:

The online auction house arrived at the decision at the insistence of representatives from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (which, as you may suspect by their name, takes inaugural ceremonies pretty seriously).

Head of the committee, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, recently has been advocating against online scalping of inauguration tickets amidst an overwhelming public demand.

Only 240,000 tickets for the January 20 event are provided free to the public through members of Congress and the inauguration committee.

Tags: Inauguration 2009, Obama, travel, Washington DC