If you're not familiar with Airbnb, it's basically a service where you can list your house or condo or apartment (or a portion of it) as available for rent to strangers for some given period of time. On the flip side, travelers can look to AirBmB for places to stay while traveling, and possibly save some money in the process when compared to the often overpriced chain hotels. I happened to be browsing the AirBnB listings for Cleveland Ohio recently just for the fun of it, and to check out how everyone on there has their places decorated. There are many bargains on there, with a lot of people offering rental of their houses and condos for under $100 a night. However much to my shock, there are also apparently a lot of people trying to cash in on the Republican National Convention as well when it is held here (it's already been held here once, but it will be happening again in the coming months). There are people on there actually charging upwards of $2,500...$4,000...and even as high as $6,500 PER NIGHT to rent their houses or condos when the RNC is in town. Just to put things into perspective, many of these same places often charge between $150 - $250 per night any other day on there. Are there people seriously that stupid to pay that much for a place to stay?? I know that rooms will probably be booked tight at all the nearby hotels but folks planning on coming into town already have plenty of time to book their rooms far in advance. Not to mention even the swankiest hotels in downtown Cleveland don't even charge that much per night to stay there (that I'm aware of). Hell, you could even stay at a top flight hotel in a suburb of Cleveland and have a limo take you to the RNC and back and still pay less. Craziness!
People do get greedy on airbrb for events like the Olympics or Wimbledon and they do hike up their prices, just as they do for Halloween in Salem, but not all owners do. I stayed at normal price, so it depends on the owner and how far in advance you book. Those who do it as a business will push for the highest price and then others will choose who looks more suitable. The thing about airbnb is that you can reject people if you don't like the look of them or people negotiate.
Wow, it makes me wish they were holding a big convention in my area. I guess they are hoping some Republican fat cats will pay to stay in the area. It is one of the things that will probably never come to fruition. Maybe you should look to rent a room since, I think you are not too far from the area...lol...cash in!! I want to try to use Airbnb I have a room I could rent..but most people would want it in the summer. Maybe if I work hard I could have it for labor day weekend!
I might increase my price somewhat, but definitely not to that extent. It would be interesting to see if people will actually pay those prices. I'm sure if they do, they will write off the expenses on their taxes. I tend to avoid crowds, not flock to them, so usually haven't had to deal with price increases of that sort. but with those prices, I have to wonder what else is included. Perhaps they're renting more than just a room/house/condo?
That's crazy. This is the reason why I do not like AirBnB. I tried using that before when I was looking for a place to stay in Malaysia, and the prices were ridiculous. There were no special events then! I ended up just staying at a hotel.
They want to make a killing from it? I doubt anyone will be willing to pay $6,500 so they can spend the night in someone's home. The ones setting their prices their "rent" that high are probably hoping against hope that someone might just "swallow the bait." They are setting themselves up for disappointment.
I'm not surprised, people will get greedy and try to overprice their fee for as much as they can so that they can make more money. People have the option of not availing anyway, so they can just simply ignore those overpriced condos and apartments and look for cheaper ones instead.
