Airbnb rentals in Idaho spike 450% for solar eclipse; Biggest night ever in the state - East Idaho News
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Airbnb rentals in Idaho spike 450% for solar eclipse; Biggest night ever in the state

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The following is a news release from Airbnb.

BOISE — With just a few weeks remaining until the highly-anticipated total solar eclipse, families and travelers from across the country are using home sharing to find additional and affordable accommodations.

Marking the biggest night ever for Airbnb in the Gem State, over 8,300 Airbnb guest arrivals have been booked, including 4,650 in the eclipse zone, for this once-in-a-generation event at Idaho’s Airbnb listings on the eclipse path — an increase of 450 percent from the same time the previous week. Idaho is the 4th top state to receive Airbnb guest arrivals for the night of the eclipse, behind Tennessee, South Carolina and Oregon.

”Home sharing gives cities big and small the ability to scale up quickly for major events and creates opportunities for local residents to earn additional income by sharing extra space in their homes,” said Marisa Moret, Airbnb Public Policy Manager. “For many families this will be first time experiencing a solar eclipse together, and possibly even using Airbnb for the first time as well.”

The following chart illustrates the top cities for guest arrivals that have been booked so far for the evening of Sunday, August 20th. The cities are all in the western part of the state and outside of the Boise area:

air bnb stats jp

Over the last year, Idaho has experienced 126,000 Airbnb guest arrivals with the typical host earning $4,900 by sharing their home 28 nights annually. Airbnb hosts earned over $11.6 million in supplemental income in 2016.

Airbnb began collecting and remitting taxes on behalf of its Idaho host and guest community in December 2016.

Helping Idaho accommodate more visitors

With hotel rooms and campsites across the state sold out, Airbnb hosts are expanding the state’s lodging options. This ensures people are able to visit Idaho to view the eclipse and communities are able to capture these visitor dollars. This dynamic lodging supply also helps smaller communities expand their lodging capacity without building expensive infrastructure. 68% of hosts who are booked for the eclipse are hosting for the first time.

Providing affordable accommodations for visitors during major events

With fixed hotel inventory, hotel room prices typically skyrocket during major events and sell out quickly, limiting the number of visitors who are able to stay longer. Home sharing and Airbnb provide visitors, especially families, more affordable accommodations.

While some fluctuation in the price of any accommodation is natural, on Airbnb, supply and demand increase at the same time. When demand surges on the Airbnb platform – typically, during big events like the Super Bowl in Houston and Final Four Weekend in Phoenix this year – more local families decide to rent out their spaces, ensuring affordable options are available. While Airbnb hosts are free to set their own prices, the more affordable options are consistently more likely to be booked and more expensive listings remain waiting to be booked. The average nightly-per-room rate of booked listings in Idaho cities in the path of the eclipse is $314.

Airbnb hosts earning valuable extra income

Across the state, new and long-time Airbnb hosts will make meaningful extra income by sharing their homes. Hosts keep 97% of what they charge and those in the path of the eclipse will earn $1 million that night.

Welcoming eclipse viewers from around the world

So far, guests from 26 states (including Idaho) and 26 countries have booked listings in the path of the eclipse for the event. More than 40,000 guest arrivals have turned to Airbnb to book homes along the path of totality, ensuring their place in history. From Oregon to South Carolina, nearly 3,800 homes available along the path of totality.

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