The view from the living room. (Photo via Airbnb)

President Obama will be inaugurated into his second term in 40 days. With January 21, 2013 rapidly approaching, hotels, restaurants and other merchants across the D.C. area are grabbing at the opportunity to raise their rates for this quadrennial celebration of patriotism. And sometimes, they go too far. “Ridiculous Inauguration Deal of the Day” will examine the most ludicrous offerings we can find.

Airbnb, the website through which people can offer their futons, spare bedrooms or whole houses and apartments for short-term rentals, figures to be a veritable lodging frenzy come inauguration time. There is no shortage of rooms and apartments to be had between January 18 and 22, which seems to be the agreed-upon span when demand will peak. And all of them are going for well above their normally marketed prices.

But this series is about the extremes, and one group of roommates in Mount Vernon Square are opening up their tony three-bedroom penthouse for the not-so-low sum of $6,500 per night. Their spread, according to the Airbnb listing, offers views of the U.S. Capitol to go with other amenities like a Keurig coffee maker, large-screen plasma televisions, a covered balcony, a built-in speaker system, and a cable TV package that includes HBO, Showtime and the NBA League Pass. (You know, if you want to stay in on January 19 and watch the Wizards take on the Los Angeles Clippers.)

But $6,500? Yowza. On top of that, the apartment’s full-time residents—who appear to be skipping town for inauguration—want a one-week minimum, bringing the subtotal to $45,500. On top of that, though, Airbnb gets an additional service fee of $2,730. Yeah, proximity and luxury are important, but are they worth a price of $48,230 before you even get to D.C.?

Forget the exorbitance, for a moment. Airbnb might be a nifty and convenient service, but it also exists in a murky regulatory zone. District residents who wish to rent out their homes, spare bedrooms or individual condominium units are required to obtain a one-family rental license from Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. Between all the requisite fees, the license costs $173 and requires applicants to pass an multi-tiered approval process. And that’s on top of the $200 basic business license the District requires all merchants to obtain.

We reached out to the posters of this Airbnb listing to see if they have the proper licenses from DCRA, but did not hear back. On the upside (maybe) we now have an Airbnb account.

So much bureaucracy, almost makes the $100,000 package at the Ritz-Carlton a sensible option.