Downtown hotel offering $50K package for Indianapolis 500

The InterContinental Hotel opened at 17 W. Market St. in downtown Indianapolis on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (IBJ photo/Mickey Shuey)

The newest upscale hotel in downtown Indianapolis is looking to roll out the red carpet for a pair of guests to attend this year’s Indianapolis 500–at an eye-popping price.

Intercontinental Indianapolis, which opened in mid-February, is offering a $50,000 package that features a slew of bells and whistles, including a penthouse space, premium tickets to the May 25 race, a police escort to Indianapolis Motor Speedway and private dinners.

The package is the first of its kind to be offered by the hotel, which generally focuses on serving high-end business and leisure travelers, as well as luxury events and dinners. The InterContinental is among the most upscale hotels in downtown Indianapolis, alongside the Conrad, which opened in 2004.

While lodging and ticket packages have been arranged for countless Indianapolis 500 attendees in the past—with some flying guests directly into the track via helicopter—the Intercontinental offering is believed to be the most expensive known all-inclusive package for the event, and perhaps the most exclusive given its scarcity.

“When you look at the bucket-list sports tourism kind of activity, it tends to draw luxury travelers,” Zachary Lockett, the hotel’s director of sales, told IBJ. “These folks wouldn’t be coming to Indianapolis if it weren’t for something like the Indy 500, so … we saw that there was a gap in the market for having a travel package that was really geared very specifically towards that luxury traveler, whether it be domestic or international.

“There’s only one person or one couple in the world that could buy this package for the Indy 500 each year, because we only have one penthouse to offer.”

Lockett said there have so far been no takers for the package, but he views it as an opportunity to see whether there’s an appetite for such an offering. He said the package could be extensively customized to accommodate any guest looking to take up the offer.

“Packages like this are really common for high-end luxury hotels, and usually surrounding sporting, cultural or social events, but we haven’t seen that here so we thought it was just a good opportunity,” he said. 

The package features several elements:

— A three-night stay in the InterContinental’s penthouse suite;

— Two “premier tickets” to Sunday’s race (specifics about seating weren’t disclosed);

— A round-trip police escort to and from the track through an arrangement with either local or state police;

— Dinner for two at the hotel’s Astrea rooftop bar overlooking Monument Circle;

— Daily breakfast at Serliana on the second floor of the hotel;

— A private chef’s table dinner inside the penthouse with a menu tailored by the InterContinental’s executive chef Craig Baker.

Lockett said the hotel would be receptive to any takers, whether they’re local, domestic or international, but he expects the greatest demand for such a package would come from the latter. He said some traditional rooms at the hotel are also still available for race weekend, starting at $799 per night.

“The focus as we’re looking to book this [package] … would be from a high-end international traveler coming to Indy” for the race, he said. “It’s been a wildly successful opening. We’ve seen very high demand right out of the gates from many different segments.”