Though Vancouver-area hotels have been booked for months, property owners hoping to cash in on an influx of Olympics visitors are having mixed success.
“Whenever there’s a large event in a town – whether it’s Austin City limits or the Olympics – we see an increase in demand of people asking for properties and for owners putting up their properties for rent,” says Alexis de Belloy, vice president of HomeAway.com, a vacation rental site. De Belloy says the number of Vancouver properties listed on HomeAway.com at the end of 2009 was up 90% on the previous year, while Whistler properties were up 73% for the same period.
More than 70% of the Vancouver and Whistler listings on HomeAway.com during the Olympics were fully booked as of last week, de Belloy says, and owners are receiving nightly fees ranging from $570 to $880 for a three-bedroom home. That compares to $140 to $330 for a similar-size property during the rest of the year (data are anecdotal from HomeAway.com).
Other sites still have an oversupply of properties in the area: Only about 30% of the 3,000 Vancouver-area homeowners who are advertising on rent2010.net, have been successful in renting out their homes, says Mark Szekely, who launched the site in 2006.
Kristin Shoemaker is one of those owners. Shoemaker is renting out her Vancouver vacation home to four separate parties from Feb. 12 through the end of the Games. She and her husband, who live in suburban Minneapolis, bought the 700-square-foot condo in the Kitsilano neighborhood two years ago, hoping it would be a good investment property. And at least during the Olympics, it is: Shoemaker is getting $500 a night – a significant increase from the $2,600-a-month rate she usually charges renters when her family isn’t using it.
A cheaper option
Besides the availability, staying in a private residence offers more space, more privacy and usually a better value, especially if you’re renting with a group.
Not surprisingly, room rates in Vancouver are hugely inflated during the Games, as hotels hope to capitalize on the tourist bonanza. Moda, a 57-room boutique hotel in downtown Vancouver, for instance, has some rooms still available (as of last week), for $609 a night. (A search on its web site turned up rooms for $158 a night for a stay in April.)
By comparison, a search on HomeAway.com found a loft-style 800-square-foot one-bedroom apartment in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Vancouver going for $374 a night (or $2,522 a week). The apartment sleeps up to five people and is three blocks from the Olympic Village.
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