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Ever since Barack Obama was elected president, we've heard about the huge crowds coming to Washington for the Inauguration. There have been endless stories for months about D.C. residents renting out their homes and apartments to revelers, and Craigslist is awash in ads. They're even popping up on Gmail and Facebook.
There's also been a lot written about the numbers associated with the rental phenomenon, with sometimes astronomical figures: $1,000 a night; $30,000 for Fred Thompson's place; up to $50,000 for a four-night stay. But is anyone actually succeeding? We've only heard of a handful of deals actually being made, and most articles seem to be about people putting their places up for rent, not actually getting them rented.
In a totally unscientific and informal survey of the DCist staff and their immediate acquaintances, those folks who tried putting their place on Craigslist rarely got so much as a response. Most people who knew somebody who rented their place got it done because of some connection -- a family friend, an ad posted on a university bulletin board, or something arranged a long time ago. The prices are much lower than we've been hearing, too: $300 a night for a Capitol Hill studio, for example. Not small potatoes, but not the huge numbers that have been part of the hype.
Photo by Kevin H.
We've got a sneaking suspicion the hoopla surrounding the short supply of housing is causing a lot of potential attendees to stay away from private home rentals -- too many potentially negative variables, including the transportation nightmare we've already been warned about.
One group of unforeseen victims in all this are those looking for regular long term rentals right now — Craigslist is flooded with inauguration rentals only, so finding a regular rowhouse or apartment to rent for a year is close to impossible.
Have you tried renting your place, or managed to get it rented?
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i've seen no first-hand proof. most of the stories i've heard begin with "i know this dude..."
No luck renting a 2 br in Rosslyn, and I was basically like "best offer".
No luck so far renting our guest room on Capitol Hill. Had it at $500/night. Immediately got a query offering $450/night (right after the election), but since it was so soon I opted to wait and see if I could get my price. Big mistake, it seems, as there's been no further interest. After the ad expires, I might try it again at about $300. Or I have a couple of friends in B'more who'd happily stay here for nothing.
Count me in on the ticked off, looking-for-a-real-apartment crowd. Despite filtering out "inauguration" from my search, Craigslist is basically unusable for it's intended purpose. I wish they had put up a special section for it. Oh, and I haven't heard any success stories and routinely see the same places listed at $1k per night for 3 or 4 weeks counting.
yes - me too on the APT search. And there is a section: at the very least it should be under temporary housing.
The hoopla is discouraging people, or the hoopla was overblown in the first place? Everyone I know started hearing about $3,000/night rentals and immediately started making plans to float their place on craisglist. I think this entire boon was in our collective heads. I mean, think about it. If you have a few grand lying around (plus transportation), are you really going to want to sleep on some strangers' bed in their studio apartment? Just a lot of wishful thinking..
The hoopla is discouraging people, or the hoopla was overblown in the first place?
Fenty scared everyone off with his ridiculous 4 million people comment. I'm kind of looking forward to going now that everyone has been freaked out into staying home.
It's all artificial, really. Me and a number of friends in DC (U St., Columbia Heights, Petworth) tested the waters and got little to no interest (on CL mainly). We've now shelved plans to rent our places due to a pure lack of response. Ah well...the money would have been nice.
I am just back from Philadelphia. People are talking about just rolling the dice and coming down. They will see what is available as far as getting a place to stay and low ball all of these "profiteers". I was surprised that my brother's neo-con buddies wanted free shelter at my house to protest. I told them thanks but no thanks.
Well, consider: $300+ a night can usually fetch you a really nice hotel room in most cities, and that comes with a cleaning staff, the possibility of room service, and complimentary newspaper at your door, as opposed to a mildewy smell, the possibility of coming across your host's porn collection, and complimentary vagrant on your doorstep.
Not to mention the insane security deposits that people were asking, and the fact that most individuals don't take credit cards. Considering the recession and America's overall debt problem, I'm not sure how many folks are able, much less willing, to lay a few grand out in cash, including a deposit to a total stranger, just to participate in a giant clusterfuck in DC.
I offered my entire family to stay for free with easy access to Metro...all said no. and they all were Obamamaniacs too.
I bet this whole inauguration will be just like the youth turn out for every election, predicted to be huge, but turns out to be the same as last time.
Posted my place on CL back in late November, 3 bedroom in Adams Morgan, at "Best Offer" - got 2 responses, one for 300 a night for 3 nights, one for 400 a night for 2 nights.
In the end, we decided it wasn't worth it, and one of the groups found another place. Not sure what the other group did.
After the election WifeRat and I considered renting out our place and heading to Florida for the weekend, but having just spent 6 months in Fargo we thought better of it. It looks like it would have been a bust.
i keep telling my out-of-towner friends and family that the inauguration bubble is imaginary, and that i know no one who's renting out anything, but they refuse to believe me. "but i heard on the news!..."
then they get all indignant that i'm NOT trying to rent my Hill apartment, like it's losing THEM money.
I am also looking for a real apartment and find that all you have to do is filter out inauguration, inaguration, innauguaration, inaguaration, inaugural, and OBAMA!!!!. Then you're down to maybe a 1:1 ratio of real apartments to innaaauugral hopefuls.
Or you could just search "cats allowed."
You made me spit out my water. That's some funny stuff.
My buddy in Georgetown, where I reside, just rented his (huge) mansion for 20K a night (for 3 nights) to a visiting dignitary from Africa. The $60,000 rental price includes the use of this butler and maids. I think the only people really benefiting from the rental of their homes during Inauguration are people who (a) have a multi-million dollar pad and (b) live in a location convenient to Inaugural events. Sorry, that basement in Columbia Heights probably won’t bring in much, if any, money.
Since when is Georgetown convenient to anything?
I love Gtown, best neighborhood I’ve made home in DC. And I think it's quite convenient to access most parts of NW DC. Of course as a resident you learn back roads and other ways to avoid the tourist/suburbia CF hotspots.
And during the Inauguration, I believe Gtown would definitely be one of the more convenient, and entertaining, places for tourists.
Visiting African dignitaries don't know that.
You sure your buddy didn't rent to Jack B. Johnson?
This "visiting dignitary from Africa" wouldn't happen to be a prominent Nigerian businessman, would he? Because if he asked for your friend's bank account information so he could deposit the $60K payment for the rental, I may have some bad news...
Uhmmmm, no. The arrangements were handled through a realty agency. Sotheby's I believe, but not sure.
Some of those ads are pretty funny, especially the "convenient" locations in Manassas and Herndon. If you are coming in from Herndon that day, you might as well just get a real hotel in Philly.
Count me among the people just looking for a regular ol' apartment rental who hate the Craigslist listings right now. Seriously, do that many people think they're gonna make a quick buck (especially the people in Columbia Heights or Petworth)? It almost seems like the closer it gets to the inauguration, the fewer "real" listings there are.
Looking to Rent a room in NW Jan-Sept with chance to renew? I've had a tough time getting bites with the Inaug swamp.
I'm interested! Can you email me more info at versharma@gmail.com?
1. I offered my place to friends and family for free -- no bites but we are a poor people.
2. Have been looking for a one-year lease via Craigslist and it has been a pain.
3. Hope anyone who does lease their apartment for bags of cash gets their bedroom spewed upon by drunks of Keith Richards proportions.
I've rented my place out for $500 a night to a nice couple who will stay 5 days. My friends (and also neighbors) rented their apartment out for $1,000 for the week. We both made arrangements in mid-November and have already collected portions of the rents.
On Craigslist, a few people were posting their experiences renting out private homes during the Olympics in Atlanta and Salt Lake City. Basically, they said there was a lot of local news coverage and hype, but in general very very few places were actually rented. So I advertised a really low rent and got 5-8 quality responses and got things squared away months ago.
Enjoy the DC winters and delusional crowds, I'll be on a paid S. American vacation with my bf!
I have totally rented out my apartment HOSTEL style! Its been great lots of international travelers are staying with me and I'm sure it will be TONS of fuN! I used airbed & breakfast and it has been nothing but FANTASTIC!
We tried to rent our 4BR NorthWest house, no luck. Just a few offers for $200 a night, but I'm not relocating for that.
On another note, we are trying to rent one of our rooms longterm- Jan-Aug/Sept, but we keep getting pushed out by Inaug ads.
More important: where is that shirt selling. I *need* it!!
It appears to be in Penn Quarter (421 7th Street NW), but that's just my best Google-fueled guess.
haha my thoughts exactly!! Trying to find it on the internet now..
Check it out!
http://www.cafepress.com/Obama_OMG
http://www.neighborhoodies.com/obama-tshirt-p-1016.html
not sure which site is better...
No luck here either (DuPont Circle, 10 blks from Executive Mansion). Not that we were really serious in the first place, but I was flogging a parking space - Americans, God bless 'em all, will never part with their cars, it seems! Off-street close to 15th, weekend rate, buck-fitty. Nuttin'.
One of our board members rented his condo in Logan Circle out for $3000 and donated the full amount to us.
Warms my heart every time I think about it....
I posted on my building's list that my cousin's in-laws needed a place (nice, well-off, retired couple from Long Island) and got 10+ offers, but most wanted the "going rate", a.k.a., $500+ a night. So I reposted and said I wanted $500 total for two nights, after which just two offers remained. Both one-bedrooms were fine and I made arrangements with one. But several other people wrote back and said they were holding out for the $1000+ a night. Guess they'll be enjoying the comforts of their own homes the night of the 20th.
In December I started advertising on CL my 1 bedroom in Adams Morgan for $500 a night. No real offers. I dropped it to $300 and by the end of the month I had it rented for 3 nights. I'll be taking my message of change to the Dominican Republic.
I'm renting out my couch and an airbed on airbedandbreakfast.com for $120 per person and have either one or two people staying with me depending on the night. A friend is also renting his place on the same sight to a bunch of different people and making over $1200 in total. The idea is not to charge super high prices, but rather prices real people will want to pay.
Wow, I consider myself lucky after reading this, renting to a couple and their son for 5 days for $1400. We are a condo one block from the Waterfront Metro and have an indoor swimming pool. I had to repost on Craigs List every day (in the correct section for Temporary housing) in order to get a response. Craigs List should fix their system to prevent posting in the wrong sections. Now that the inauguration is over, I was able to find a renter for Feb 1.