With a week to go until President-elect Donald Trump's Inauguration, Airbnb is reporting it will have its single busiest night on Jan. 20.
According to a new report, the home-sharing company says it expects over 15,000 guests to use Airbnb throughout the DMV during Inauguration weekend, which is up from a November report where it predicted an average of 10,000 guests total.
Airbnb also reports that the median price for a listing in the DMV is $129 per night, which accounts for all single room and whole home listings. This new median price is only a tad higher than the $125 per night rate reported by the company in the same November report.
However, in October, DC Inno reported that on average the cost for an Airbnb was about $671 per night based on a basic search for Airbnbs in the area for Inauguration weekend. Based on the same search Friday morning, the average cost appears to be between $565 and $660 per night for two guests. A new update to the website no longer shows the average price on the site.
Currently, according to a basic Expedia search for hotels from Jan. 19-Jan. 22, the average cost per night is $561 per night for hotels in the DMV area—a price that could ultimately be cheaper than Airbnb.
In the same report, Airbnb is predicting that guest spending in the area combined with host income that weekend economic impact for the entire DMV will reach $10 million. The company also says that about 25 percent of the hosts with listings booked for the weekend are new hosts.
A few other findings from the report include:
- The top D.C. area neighborhoods for listings are Capitol Hill, Columbia Heights, the H Street Corridor, Shaw and Adams Morgan.
- D.C. will see people flocking from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Portland, Philadelphia and Oakland the most.
- Airbnb guests are projected to spend $4.7 million at D.C.-area restaurants, retailers, cafes and more.
- Bookings, according to Airbnb, increased 800 percent since Election Day.
This new report comes only a few weeks after Arlington County's new Airbnb restrictions went into place, which emphasizes short-term rentals over longer stays, and on opening day for Vornado's pop-up hotel in Crystal City, which converted empty apartment units into hotel rooms just in time for the Inauguration.
Image used via CC BY 2.0 — credit DVIDSHUB
