Airbnb prices ramp up for Fieldays
Renting your house out for Fieldays could reap homeowners thousands of dollars in additional earnings.
Karapiro couple Clair and Josh van der Valk are doing just that – renting their four bedroom home out for four nights and earning up to $4000 in the process.
Clair van der Valk, 29, who works from home, is coy about the exact figure.
‘‘Quite good,’’ Claire said. ‘‘Three to four thousand dollars for four nights.’’
The 50th annual Fieldays NZ next week is expected to bring huge crowds. Last year, the event saw 133,800 visitors descend upon the 144 hectares at the Mystery Creek Event Centre – equivalent to the population of Tauranga.
At $4000, the van der Valks stand to earn $1000 per night for their five expected guests or $200 per person. In return, their guests get the use of their renovated rural home, ample parking, full kitchen and lounge. It’s the first time Claire and Josh have opened their home to the market. Other homes listed on Airbnb for the Fieldays week ask for $5000 and more, Claire said.
‘‘It was a bit hard to put a figure on it so I had to do some research as to what it would cost for a motel, how many rooms would they need versus what properties were like at the [Karapiro] lakefront so we’re probably at the low end of the scale, even at that price.
‘‘We’ve both got parents 20 minutes away so it’s not an inconvenience to us.’’
That’s just one of the ways Fieldays exhibitors and visitors are finding accommodation for the country’s biggest agricultural event, said Fieldays chief executive Peter Nation.
‘‘Airbnb has been our saviour,’’ Nation said.
‘‘There has been a huge number of Airbnb opportunities taken up by both exhibitors and people travelling in to the event.’’
Visitors are filling every available bed in the region with campervans across the road from the event, people dossing down with friends and family and the ‘‘shoulder market’’ taking the overflow.
‘‘There is a big number camped down in Rotorua who bus over every day,’’ Nation said.
‘‘Some of the bigger exhibitors closeby, like Tauranga, are putting their teams into mini-buses and bringing them over the hill every morning because it’s more efficient.’’
A 2017 economic impact report showed Fieldays reaped $191 million in spending in Waikato and this year will be ‘‘big’’, Nation said.
The first Fieldays was held at the Te Rapa Racecourse and has grown dramatically over the years.
‘‘It’s just gone from strength to strength since it shifted to its existing site near the airport,’’ Waipa District Council mayor Jim Mylchreest said.
Waipa, a mainly rural district, can’t find enough beds for visitors and relies on neighbouring districts to carry the load.
‘‘The overflow effect to the wider region, and probably to the Bay of Plenty, is quite significant, I would suggest,’’ Mylchreest said.
‘‘We can’t possibly hope to cater to those visitors on our own.’’
While Fieldays falls outside the city boundary, Hamilton City Mayor Andrew King said its impact on the urban economy is ‘‘absolutely massive’’.
‘‘It’s one of the biggest events on the calendar and it’s brought Hamilton to what it is,’’ King said.
Waikato Chamber of Commerce chief executive William Durning said the event has developed into a significant national event.
‘‘It showcases some of the excellent things and some of the innovative things that are going on, in a business sense, across the whole country and also the global impact.