Demand for Airbnb rentals in Washington on Inauguration Day is skyrocketing as D.C. residents look to cash in on Donald Trump’s swearing-in.
The short-term property rental service reports that it has already booked 6,300 reservations for inauguration weekend, and it expects that figure to climb to 10,000.
{mosads}The traffic is blowing its 2013 numbers out of the water — Airbnb had 1,500 guests reserve stays through its service for President Obama’s second inauguration — although the company has expanded its user base significantly since then.
Compared to the surrounding weekends, inauguration weekend has seen the number of reservations on the site increase tenfold so far.
And Trump’s supporters aren’t alone in flocking to D.C.
A “Million Women March” to protest Trump’s presidency is planned for Jan. 21. The event has more than 115,000 people who have said they will attend on Facebook, with another 210,000 interested in the event.
Lara Hawketts, co-owner of Home Sweet City, a service that manages local Airbnb and other digital rentals listings for property owners, said the event is drawing in a flood of short-term renters.
“We’ve actually had as many bookings for that as the actual inauguration,” she said.
That group of protesters, who plan to march from the Lincoln Memorial to the White House, are likely to be joined by swarms of other groups infuriated by Trump’s upset win over Hillary Clinton.
The heightened demand for a place to stay in D.C. is driving prices into the thousands.
A search for a two-night Airbnb rental for one guest between Jan. 20 – Inauguration Day – and Jan. 22 in Washington shows an average price of about $800 a night, with some stretching to more than $2,000 close to the Capitol.
That search covers all of Airbnb’s available accommodation types — an entire home, a private bedroom, or a shared room.
Listings show homes as far north as the Columbia Heights neighborhood going for $1,300 a night and up.
An entire apartment on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Mall is listed at more than $1,700 a night.
Another listing in Penn Quarter offers a one-bedroom house for nearly $3,400 a night for inauguration weekend, with a minimum three-night stay. The normal nightly rate at the same listing is $250.
A search of Washington Airbnb listings the weekend before inauguration shows an average price of about $150 a night.
Though inauguration weekend rentals now have hefty price tags, the uptick was slow to start after the election. Immediately after Trump’s victory, rental rates on Craigslist and Airbnb actually fell, as Clinton supporters who had made plans before the election canceled their reservations.
Hotels in the D.C. area told the Washington Post two days after the election that they had not received the windfall of reservations they had expected.
“Things are definitely slower on the uptake this year,” said Shane Krige, general manager of the Fairmont in Georgetown. “It’s not like eight years ago, when the entire hotel was sold out in a day.”
But the initial lull was only temporary. In the weeks after the election, hotels have reported an increased demand for bookings.
Hawketts said that her company’s rentals are priced four times higher for inauguration than normal peak rates, with some going much higher.
Hawketts recalled a homeowner on H Street who asked her to go past their standard cap of four times the normal rate — which would have priced his house at $1,500 — to $5,000 a night, with a minimum five-night reservation.
Craigslist has also become a hotbed of inauguration options. Searching “inauguration” on the Washington version of the site yields 29 short-term rental options for the weekend. Most are in the $1,000-and-up range.