Rental prices skyrocket thanks to Super Bowl 50
Some Bay Area listings have hit $10,000 a night as locals cash in on anticipated crowd
SAN FRANCISCO— In the San Francisco Bay Area, where high housing costs are notorious, residents looking to make a quick buck are offering to rent their homes at supersized prices to the one million visitors expected for Super Bowl 50 festivities.
There’s a luxury 8,500-square-foot home in San Jose, Calif., listed for $10,000 (U.S.) a night. A 400-squarefoot cottage in the same city is going for $3,900 for the three-night weekend. A four-bedroom apartment near San Francisco’s “Super Bowl City” is listed at $1,495 a night, with a minimum six-night stay.
And let’s not forget a cosy tree house for two in a 150-year-old oak tree a half-hour drive from downtown San Francisco. You can call out for pizza and never mind that the bathroom is down the tree. Best of all, it’s just $495 a night.
Whether customers will pay such prices is uncertain, even in an area where hotel rooms are limited for the weeklong extravaganza. Of an estimated 50,000 hotel rooms in the nine-county Bay Area, the NFL has booked nearly half for players and their families, officials and employees, according to the local bowl organizing committee.
That means regular out-of-towners are on the hook to book a place for pre-game festivities in San Francisco and the game Feb. 7 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, about 65 kilometres to the south, when Denver Broncos face the Carolina Panthers.
In response, the number of listings on traditional home-sharing sites such as Airbnb and HomeAway has soared. According to Airbnb, demand is about three times greater than for last year’s Super Bowl in Arizona, with homes closer to the stadium listed at higher prices than units in notoriously apartment-squeezed San Francisco.
“There is definitely demand and it’s definitely a great way to generate extra income, but you can’t go overboard. You can’t gouge, because there’s such an increase in supply,” said David Ordal, chief executive officer of Everbooked, a company that provides pricing and market analytics for Airbnb.
For example, he said that Santa Clara has 86 per cent more listings for the bowl weekend than for other weekends in February. Prices are up 19 per cent. San Francisco has 14 per cent more listings, with prices up 25 per cent.
Paul Arys and his wife, Laura Hernandez, who live about a five-minute walk away from the stadium, have listed their two-bedroom house for $2,000 a night. The usual rate is $100 anight for a bedroom, or $500 for the entire house. The couple plans to go away for Super Bowl weekend.
Judie Ciesla, an experienced host on Airbnb, recently helped Cyndi Chong and her sister list for the first time a two-bedroom home five blocks from the stadium. The house can sleep six and is priced at $700 a night, with a four-night minimum.
One person who’s already locked in guests is first-time host Therese Lehane. She’s renting two rooms in her San Jose home for $1,000 a night to four cameramen with Fox Mexico. Lehane will work as a greeter for the game.
“I just thought it would be an awesome experience,” she said. “Who gets to work the Super Bowl and then have the cameramen stay in their house?”