Atlanta Superbowl Disaster

[Cherette0]

I have been a host for (4) years and my property is 1.3 miles away from the Mercedes Benz Stadium. I did not get booked at all for the Superbowl. 

Many host I know located on the Westside did not get booked. Interesting enough I know a couple of host who got booked 25-40 minutes away from the city.

What happened? 

Is AirBnB steering guest to suburban areas?

Does anyone else have similar Superbowl stories?

If you were booked where are you located?

Just looking for convo from host.

[Inna22]

@Cherette0 I heard from someone who has several properties that they did not get booked at all. Do you think your pricing was off?

[Cherette0]

 Pricing was crazy. The market was oversaturated but again it doesn't make sense. There are people who were renting whole houses for $300-$500 a night in walking distance and they did not get booked. Rooms for $70-$100 a night. Still empty.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Cherette0

Another thing to consider is that it is often wrong to put all your eggs in one basket - particular for major events. It is often wise to list on more than one platform to ensure you have a broader audience reach.

[Cherette0]

This sounds really great in theory but looking at the actual details it still does not make sense.

Our home and neighborhood is booked solid during conventions and much lighter traffic events. Advance and Last minute bookings.

Also considering that my listing was not getting views at all and people 4x the distance away w higher prices got booked. We have to look at the basket.

[Sam397]

@Cherette0  one of the big things the NFL considers when choosing a city to host a super bowl is the number of hotels they have. So I am assuming Atlanta has a ton of hotels. A huge portion of the tickets ( I think it's like 75%) are distributed to all the players and front office employees of all the teams. The teams then get great deals from hotels making it cheaper than a BnB. So maybe it has nothing to do with you or your listing, maybe its just there are so many people that are getting the rooms as part of a package.

[Cherette0]

The hotels were full. They overbooked so heavily that people were forced to do home rentals. A lot of people arrived to their hotel and had booked at a low rate months in advance. Once they arrived the hotels were canceling reservations and charging 3x-5x the original booking.

But again AirBnBs got booked across the city just not in the neighborhoods closest to where the event was held. Walking Distance to be exact. 

[Mark116]

@Cherette0  That seems really strange, I did a check of availability a week before the super bowl and I was surprised to see a lot of listings with availabilities and still had their regular pricing.  I could see that maybe some of the prices were a little over optimistic like getting $1K-$2K per night, but it seems to me that airbnb would have been a preferable alternative to a hotel, so I'm a little surprised.

Any thoughts on why so many listings didnt' get rented?  

[Robin4]

@Cherette0 @Gerry-And-Rashid0 @Sam397 @Inna22

I think many Atlanta hosts thought the Superbowl was going to be a big pot of gold but, lets look at some facts.

The Mercedes Benz Stadium has 70,000 seats plus 170 suites!

There are currently 93,600 hotel rooms available in Atlanta with an occupancy capability of 207,000 guests.

In terms of hotel accommodation Atlanta now ranks seventh in the US behind NY, Chicago, Las Vegas, Washington, Orlando FL and Los Angeles.

Without any STR platform accommodation available at all, Atlanta hotels had the capability to cater for all likely touring Superbowl ticket holders 3 times over!!!! It would be a strong bet that much of the commerce, finance and research technology that is Atlanta's powerhouse would have been put on hold for the Superbowl freeing up much of the hotel accommodation market!

I saw one Atlanta host here on the CC two weeks ago who was charging $11,000 pr night with a 4 night minimum stay. The absolute minimum a 12 guest group would have to pay to stay in that listing (inc service fees) was $35,400.00 ......Seriously!!!

An influx of 40,000 tourists for a single event is not going to tax a city that is noted for it's ability to stage events!

@Gerry-And-Rashid0 hit the nail on the head, hosts just thought the world was going to beat a path to their doors....and it did not happen, it's simply a case of supply and demand I am afraid!

Cheers......Rob

[Mark116]

@Robin4  Maybe, but hotels jacked up their prices to something like $600 as an average, and airbnb is more popular and well known than ever before, so it doesn't still quite make sense that it seems like a LOT of listings that were very close to the stadium that were going for much less than the cost of a hotel room didn't get booked.  I think $40K for the weekend is obviously much, much too high, but a lot of the listings didn't even look like they had raised their prices and didn't get booked.  Still seems strange to me.

I hope more Atlanta hosts check in here and give their input and results.

[Cherette0]

@Robin4 you definitely make valid points however my issue is not so much AirBnBs getting booked.

Yes we have lots of hotels and yes the market was oversaturated.

But people still got book and made good money over the weekend.

My concern is more about where the money on AirBnB went. They had heavy emphasis on new host and homes listed in the suburbs. 

People hosting in walking distance were not even getting views on their listings.

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[Robin4]

@Cherette0

Yeah, look I can't answer that Cherette, and the host that I quoted who was charging $11,000 per night only came here to the CC because he could not find his listing in a general search and wanted advice as to what was wrong! He was also in close proximity to the stadium and had obviously listed to moved out of his property and take advantage of the demand for the Superbowl and was not getting any views.

There is a lot going on in the backgound that we do not hear about or understand Cherette. I posted a week or so ago, when I was in support and I got a really angry email from a guest who wanted to close his account because Airbnb would not let him book a listing!

It turns out wanted to travel across America to protest in a race riot in Virginia and Airbnb refused his reservation in that instance. If he wanted to go on a holiday anywhere else he would have been fine, but the combination of circumstances here meant he could not book.

You are not the only one to complain about vbisibility issues leading up to the Superbowl in Atlanta Cherette, and I am afraid we will never know why. It could even be as sinister as Airbnb doing a deal with the hotel lobby to keep the peace....I don't know, and please don't take that as a definitive statement.....it is simply a possible rationale.

I am sorry that this did not work out to be a bonanza for you.....we hosts need all the incentives we can lay our hands on and when one slips past us through no fault of ouir own, it is frustrating.

All the best Cherette.

Cheers.....Rob 

[Valerie192]

Hey @Robin4 - let me stay in dream land - I already started planning my trip to Europe on Airbnb hosting $ for Superbowl 2022!!! lol 

Very very excellent points. I had been head scratching at the lack of bookings in following these threads but you provided some very good data. 

from a superbowl aspiring host in LaLa-land

[Catherine1414]

I’m on the west side, about 7min driving distance from the stadium  and I was booked. I don’t know everyone else’s experience, but if anything like mine, be glad that you weren’t booked! I’ve been hosting for almost 2yrs now and these were by far the worse guests. So bad that I have since blocked out dates just to recoup from the hassle. It was a very draining stay to say the least.

[Valerie192]

Hi @Catherine1414 could you share a bit more about what happened? Were these new guests or did they have previous positive reviews? Thanks!