Price hikes during SXSW

Attending South by Southwest can mean spending hundreds to thousands of dollars.
While expensive, city officials say the 10-day festival is a gold-mine for Austin's economy.

SXSW brought more than $317 million to Austin last year.
A lot of that is due to a surge in prices.
For instance, the few hotel rooms available downtown right now are almost four times as much as normal.

When it comes to SXSW, Austin's economic boom could mean an economic bust for residents and tourists.

"I'm here all week attending all the sessions and stuff. I'd guess hotel is probably going to be around $2,000 for the week," says Matt Pierson, festival goer.

Matt Pierson works for an education non-profit.
He is attending SXSWedu which kicked off this week.

"From what I've seen, it's kind of an all access pass to the content sessions that are here. From my perspective, by registering early, it was well worth the price because of all the learning experiences and networking I'm getting," says Pierson.

So how much does everything cost?
According to cheaphotels.org, on average, hotels are up more than 200 percent. 
Here's a list from Kayak of the highest price hikes as of Monday:

The Hampton Inn at the University comes out on top.
A standard king room is normally $125 and right now it's $609.
Second is Hyatt Place Downtown, a king room is normally $180 and right now it's $799.
Third is the Hyatt Regency a queen room is normally $239 and right now it's $973.
One of the most costly rooms right now is at the JW Marriott at over one-thousand dollars a night.

"I think the average people stay are four or five nights. Over 60,000 rooms are booked total. So it's a pretty incredible event and there are a lot of businesses that really count on SXSW to help their doors open from year to year."

The most expensive badge during SXSW is the Platinum Badge which grants you access to music, film and interactive.
The early bird price was $1,345 and if you were to buy it today it's $1,745.
Many events have already started.
Michele Skelding is senior vice president of global technology and innovation for the Austin Chamber of Commerce.
She says there are still many problems we need to overcome such as traffic and availability.

"While we've had the JW Marriott come on board and add 1,000 rooms in the past year, we still can't keep up with that demand. So we're going to have high prices," says Michele Skelding, Austin Chamber of Commerce.

She says the best thing to do is plan early and support short-term rentals.
In the end, everything you spend will be helping the Capitol city.

"What you can't deny is, you know, how much money is flowing into our ecosystem. The jobs, the opportunity - it's absolutely fantastic for not just our city and the brand that it brings but the economic opportunity for us," says Skelding.

We know when it comes to Uber, at times of high demand the number of drivers becomes limited.
As a result, prices increase.
During other major events, some customers have seen bills as high as $200.