Guide

The Tournament Director's Guide to Hotel Housing — Modernized

You're already in the hotel business.

Every team that registers for your tournament needs a place to sleep. Whether you have a full housing operation or just a list of hotel links on your website, you're generating hotel revenue for somebody.

The question is whether any of that revenue is coming back to you — whether the process is worth the headache — and whether you can actually see what's happening.

We know who you are. You're the director who took a week off work to run a 64-team showcase because nobody else would. You're the mom who started with one fall classic and now runs six events a year. You're the retired coach who does it because the kids on that field remind you why you got into this in the first place.

Some of you turned that passion into a real business — and the ones doing housing well are pulling serious revenue because they earned the expertise. We respect that.

We've run housing for thousands of events, including youth sports, and we've collected the commission checks (eventually). We know every version of tournament housing because we've operated most of them.

Here's what we also know: the technology has now surpassed anything previously available. It's now possible to track every booking your event generates — every team, every hotel, every room night — regardless of where or how the family books. You can also monetize it in a transparent way, and alleviate 90% of your headaches.

But first, let's figure out where you are today.

⌖
Track everything
Every team. Every hotel. Every room night. No matter where they book.
$
Monetize transparently
Clear economics. No hidden commissions. Revenue you can see and verify.
−90%
Kill the headaches
No blocks. No cutoff dates. No spreadsheets. No chasing checks.
73.5M
Room nights booked by
U.S. sports travelers in 2023
$52B
Direct spending from
amateur sports tourism
63%
Of U.S. destinations where
sports drive the most room nights
Source: Sports ETA / Tourism Economics, 2023

Which one sounds like you?

Three different starting points. Three different conversations. Pick yours.

01

"We post hotel links — or we don't do housing at all."

You might have a page listing nearby hotels. Maybe a travel agent handles it. Maybe you've negotiated a small rebate you can't verify. Or maybe hotels just aren't on your radar yet.

→
02

"We use a housing company."

Someone else runs your hotel program. They source hotels, manage bookings, and send you a report. We get it — we did this for 25 years. It was a great business model. But the technology has outgrown it.

→
03

"We handle housing ourselves."

You negotiate courtesy blocks, manage cutoff dates, track pickup on spreadsheets, and chase commission checks months after the event. You know the business. You just wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze.

→
Voices from the field
"Transparency was the biggest ask I heard from parents. They said, 'Just tell us what it costs upfront.' Instead of being forced into costly hotel deals, they'd rather see the full cost laid out clearly — even if it means a higher tournament fee."
Investigation Oklahoma Watch, March 2025
"We were charged $250 a night for a crappy hotel. My parents booked the same hotel for $100 less. The tournament portal rate was $80 higher than what we found on our own."
Parent Youth sports parent forum
"Sports are the leading driver of room-night bookings in 63% of responding cities. The industry had a direct economic impact of $52.2 billion."
Industry data Sports ETA / Tourism Economics, 2023
"If you spend five seconds thinking about Stay-to-Play it's hard not to feel like a sucker. Perhaps it was born with the right intentions but it has evolved into a dictatorship."
Parent Good Game Kid (Substack), 2023
"Court records showed the company collected more than $4 million per year in hotel kickbacks. The profits aren't flowing to neighborhood soccer clubs — the winners are third-party booking companies."
Investigation Oklahoma Watch / Medium First Watch, 2025
"Hotel booking is rarely the highlight of the trip. Between confusing policies, unpredictable pricing, and limited choices, what should be straightforward becomes an expensive guessing game."
Director perspective Stayker industry analysis
"The average U.S. sports family spent $1,016 on their child's primary sport in 2024 — a 46% increase since 2019. Travel is the most expensive part."
Industry data The Aspen Institute / Project Play, 2025
Early Access

Get Early Access. Be live in 24 hours.

No sales demo. No pitch deck. A human from our team will email you and get you live in 24 hours.

Just an email from a real person. That's it.
✓

You're in.

Check your inbox — a real person from our team is on it. You'll hear from us within 24 hours.