Syfy Channel Opens Pop-Up Hotel at SXSW

AUSTIN — As attendees know, hotel space at South by Southwest is scarce. For some, even spending a night in a shipping container may be preferable to staying somewhere miles away. Syfy is testing that theory with a pop-up hotel on San Jacinto and 4th Street designed to address the hotel-room shortage in town

However, the idea is really more of a marketing stunt than an actual solution to limited sleeping quarters. The cable network, for instance, didn't announce the availability of Defiance Container Village until Sunday. At that point, the only tenants were Forbes's Jeff Bercovici; blogger Curt Johnson, who earned his room via a Klout contest; and Jesse Rath (pictured above), an actor on Defiance, the trans-media show that the pop-up hotel was designed to promote. (A rep for the channel says space might be available Monday night; Syfy doesn't charge for the rooms.)