With college graduation season upon us, Airbnb is reporting its second biggest guest arrival weekend in Washington D.C. history, second only to President Trump's inauguration in January.
According to a report released Tuesday, an estimated 10,500 guests came to the District during the George Washington University and Georgetown University graduation weekends of May 19, bringing in an estimated $15.1 million to the D.C. area.
Along with American University, Catholic University and Howard University's commencement ceremonies May 12 weekend, D.C.'s university commencement ceremonies brought in a total of 18,000 Airbnb guest arrivals to the area over the two weekends, generating over $21 million for the local economy.
Airbnb spokesperson Crystal Davis told DC Inno that they used a 2016 guest survey on guest spending in the D.C. area, combined with estimated host earnings during those weekends to determine their estimate of local economic activity.
Davis says Airbnb regularly monitors guest arrival and booking trends, keeping a close eye on whether certain events lead to a spike in numbers. They saw a bump in activity in March during the Cherry Blossom Festival, for example, and in the Navy Yard neighborhood during the Washington Nationals playoffs.
University graduations are the only explanations for the spike in Airbnb numbers during the May 12 and May 19 weekends, she said.
"We compared guest arrivals in relation to other weekends around the same time period, so we looked at the weekend before, two weekends before, the weekend after. The only major event going on in the city that would've created a bump were the graduations," Davis said. "We even looked at the numbers during the Washington Wizards game series and those numbers were pretty flat. The graduations were the only spike."
Airbnb says graduation weekends typically bring spikes in activity. Davis says similar polls in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama also showed bumps during commencement ceremony weekends.
Image used via CC BY 2.0 - credit www.GlynLowe.com
