Airbnb operators cash in with football weekends
Airbnb-ers score income by opening homes on UA, ASU football weekends
A new report from Airbnb, the home-rental booking website, said guests traveling to Tempe paid $53 a night on average while attending football games at Arizona State University this season, while visitors to Tucson paid on average $59 a night for college games at the University of Arizona.
If you don’t mind opening your home to strangers for the weekend — and possibly hearing some taunts from visiting sports fans — college football games could provide you with an additional source of income.
A new report from Airbnb, the homerental booking website, said guests traveling to Tempe paid $53 a night on average while attending football games at Arizona State University this season, while visitors to Tucson paid on average $59 a night for games at the University of Arizona.
Those figures include fees of 5 to 15 percent paid by guests to Airbnb, which also charges 3 percent to hosts, according to the company’s website.
Those figures were derived from internal company data.
The company has noticed more guest arrivals in college towns across the country on game days as well as for move-in weekends, commencement ceremonies and other big campus events, said Laura Rillos, an Airbnb spokeswoman.
The company estimates 5,900 guests booked rooms or homes through Airbnb for six Arizona Wildcat home games this season, while 2,500 guests booked rooms or homes for seven ASU Sun Devil games.
The study didn’t tally rent figures for people in neighboring cities such as Scottsdale, Phoenix and Mesa who might have opened their homes to visiting fans.
Airbnb said most of the visitors in Tempe or Tucson for games traveled to those places from out of state.
The typical host in Tucson earned $491 over the football season, while homeowners in Tempe earned $547 on average after service fees, the company said.
Tempe and Tucson drew more guests than a couple other college towns cited by Airbnb. For example, 1,700 guest arrivals were booked for the season for six games in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, home of Louisiana State University. Only 900 arrivals were tracked for six games in Norman, Oklahoma, home of the University of Oklahoma.
Potential landlords should remember that income from home or room rentals, Uber driving and other gigeconomy activities is taxable.