SXSW Offers Merchants Chance For Exponential Price Hikes On Parking, Housing And More

AUSTIN, TX -- This is not breaking news, nor is it a bulletin, but attending SXSW can be a rather costly proposition.

SXSW badges and wristbands for entry into events staged at the 10-day technology, film and music festival aren’t cheap -- and get higher if you wait until the last minute to buy them.

Let’s take the music badge as an example. Had you purchased on early through Sept. 11, 2015, you would’ve paid the bargain rate of $650 for full access. But it now, and the price is $895.

Film badges also increase by sliding scale dictated by specific deadlines, $525 at the low end and $695 for the last-minute purchasers.

SXSW Interactive is even costlier, and organizers are now charging $1,295 for the coveted pass -- up from $825 at earliest purchase.

The Gold and Platinum passes -- offering wider variety of access to a hodge-podge of interactive, music and film are the truly coveted ones. But buy them now, and you’ll pay $1,495 for Gold and $1,745 for Platinum -- up from $1,025 and $1,345, respectively, had you bought them when they first became available for purchase.

Ironically, a last-minute Gold pass is worth more than its weight in actual gold, which is selling on the open market at $1,250 an ounce.

Every year when SXSW rolls around, one sees such dramatic illustrations into the tactics of supply and demand here in Austin. At times, though, such capitalistic dynamics devolve precariously close to price gouging rather than adherence to market forces.

Take parking, for example.

Photos of AMLI parking garages have gone viral this week for their customized SXSW signs denoting revamped prices to park one’s car: $80.

The garages typically charge $35 a day on the high end of their pricing spectrum or in hourly increments ($8 for an hour, $13 for up to four hours, etc.), as the Austin American-Statesman reported.

The newspaper notes that of the 683 parking spaces between the two facilities, many of them are reserved for residents of adjacent 451 luxury apartments, who pay $125 a month.

Not surprisingly, Ken Smith, senior project manager for Lanier Parking, which oversees the parking garages, declined to comment when asked about the SXSW parking rates.

Update: The infamous sign denoting $80 parking is no longer there, in its place one reading "No Even Parking." A customer inquiring about parking prices was told the garage had reverted back to the $35 top daily charge.

Out-of-towners in need of housing during their visit who didn’t have the presence of mind to book a hotel room early pay an arm and a leg for a temporary roof over their heads. With some 80,000 people arriving from all over the world for SXSW, forget about finding a hotel room this time of year -- the hotel stock is filled.

Instead, they typically have to resort to listings on airbnb, where rental costs shoot up about four times greater than what’s typically charged for lodging.

Oh, but it’s not “price gouging,” either, say the price increasers. With the exponential increases a euphemism emerges to justify the jumps in pricing. This is called “surge pricing,” a term popularized by the ride-sharing service Uber to explain its own need for higher pricing when there’s a high demand..

As for rental housing, a check by TNW News found that a house that normally rents out for $300 a night increases to $1,200 per-night amenity.

As the crowds can attest, SXSW isn’t for the faint of heart. But the real shock to the heart comes later, when SXSW check their credit card statements and bank deposits in ascertaining the damage to their wallets.

If you still want to go, here's today's SXSW schedule overview.

>>> Photos by Tony Cantu