The dashed hopes of homeowners hoping to cash in on the influx of Super Bowl 50 fans are making headlines from San Francisco to San Jose this morning. The San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News are both running articles about people in the region whose rental ads on sites like Airbnb and Craigslist are being ignored. There's also rumblings that hotel rooms—such as the $1M Fairmont package we reported on earlier—are also empty.
Rebecca Morgan, one of Airbnb's highly ranked San Jose super hosts, told the SJMN: "I'm one of Airbnb's top 10 places in San Jose and I've got 85 five-star reviews, but I've gotten no inquiries about my house near Willow Glen so I'm a little frustrated right now. I'm lowering my price 10 percent and I'll see what happens, but we don't know what's going on." Morgan normally lists a bedroom and a bath for $162, but she raised the ask to $249 in anticipation of hordes of game day visitors.
According to the article, Airbnb is reporting 10,000 Super Bowl listings in the area, and estimates that 6,000 of them are still available. That means, of course, that only 40 percent of the people trying to may hay out of the situation have been successful.
Hotel managers told SJMN reporters that there's room at the commercial inn as well. Bonnie Best, the general manager at Hotel Valencia in San Jose, says they have rooms available, and that other hospitality professionals are reporting the same. She suggests geography is playing a role, noting there's a lot of territory (and choices) between SF and San Jose.
· Despite the hype, Super Bowl 50 is a mixed bag for hotels and Airbnb hosts [San Jose Mercury News]
· It Costs $1M to Stay at The Fairmont Penthouse for Super Bowl [Curbed SF]
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