Big Events, High Rents

South by Southwest–the music, film and interactive festival that attracts nearly 300,000 people to Austin every March–presents a big logistical problem: Where do you put that many people in a city with only 30,000 hotel rooms? For enterprising locals, the bed shortage is an opportunity to rent their homes for tidy profits. In Austin and other places that host large annual events, homeowners can capitalize on a favorable supply-to-demand ratio to charge hefty rates for short-term rentals.

“There’s definitely a ton of demand,” says Sharon Walker, a real estate agent whose three-bedroom home rented for $1,200 a night during last year’s SXSW. She says some clients regularly take vacations during the festival–trips paid for partly by the income they get from renting out their homes.

The next big chance for local homeowners to cash in comes in April with the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga. Rent for two-bedroom houses in the Southern town more than double during tourney time.

“Anytime you have a large convention, a large sporting event, and it’s coming to a town that’s not all that big, you have a tremendous opportunity to make money,” says Jon Gray of the online rental service HomeAway. Here’s a look at six events that cause a fleeting yearly boom in the local rental market.

EVENT ATTENDANCE

NUMBER OF HOTEL ROOMS

*ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE; AUGUSTA NATIONAL DOES NOT DISCLOSE TICKET SALES

SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST

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286,000

30,000

Austin

A two-bedroom space on a regular night in Austin will run you about $240. During SXSW, the average jumps to $615. One six-bedroom house commanded $5,000 per night during the festival.

COMIC-CON

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125,000

56,000

San Diego

Comic, film and video-game fans from around the world flock to the Southern California city for this convention, driving the average nightly price of two-bed rentals from $220 to $333.

THE MASTERS

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140,000*

7,000

Augusta, Ga.

When the storied golf tournament kicks off in this city of 200,000, two-bedroom-rental rates leap from $275 to $620. A five-bedroom home booked for this year’s event cost $20,000 for a week.

WIMBLEDON

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500,000

100,000

London

Residents of the Wimbledon neighborhood rent their homes to tennis stars and VIPs for as much as $10,400 per week. A two-bed rental, normally $305 per night, is $430 during the event.

MARDI GRAS

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1,000,000

37,100

New Orleans

The city is a year-round tourist destination, but Mardi Gras revelers send rents soaring. Average two-bed prices around Fat Tuesday jump from $265 to $535.

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

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186,662

3,366

Park City, Utah

The agenda-setting film fest takes place in a ski town with a population of just 7,500, so two-bedroom rentals during the event average a hefty $568–more than $250 above the peak-season per-night average.

Sources: HomeAway; Augusta C&VB London & Partners; San Diego Tourism Authority; Park City C&VB Austin C&VB New Orleans C&VB ESPN