Renting Out Your Home For The Super Bowl? Read This First
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A shortage of hotels in Minneapolis means people all over the metro have a chance to make some major cash.
If you have been considering renting your place out for the Super Bowl, you still have time -- and this may be the best time to do it.
There are only 41,000 hotel rooms in Minneapolis. The Super Bowl is expected to bring a million people to town, and there will likely be a huge demand starting Sunday night when the teams heading to the big game will be known.
A four-bedroom, two-bath home in the Powderhorn neighborhood is going for $5,500 a night. A three-bedroom house in Minnetonka is listed at $4,459 a night, and it's not even a lake-front property. And way up on the north side of Blaine, a four-bedroom home is listed at $1,500 a night.
Do we have your attention?
You willl find Trudy Ohnsorg's St. Paul home exactly 13.1 miles east of U.S. Bank Stadium. There is a full kitchen, a spacious den with stain-glass windows and three bedrooms. She has been sharing her place a lot lately.
"I've been an Airbnb host for three years now," Ohnsorg said. "I've been what they call a 'Super Host.'"
Ohnsorg heads up a group of Twin Cities homeowners who rent their places out on various websites. She says the Super Bowl rentals are popping.
"Northeast Minneapolis, south Minneapolis, St. Paul, West St. Paul … Eagan, all for the Super Bowl," she said.
But she says short-term renting should come with much discernment.
"I strongly urge people to be careful and fully vet whoever it is when they're bringing in," she said.
Short-term rental company Airbnb says they will also be vetting people thoroughly.
"Every single reservation on Airbnb is scored ahead of time for risk," said Nick Shapiro, Airbnb's global head of trust and risk management. "We use analytics, machine learning, behavior analysts looking for anything suspicious so we can stop a bad reservation before it happens."
Shapiro said Airbnb will have a "Super Bowl SWAT Team" in place to help out any host or guest concerns -- and hosts are insured for $1 million. So if you loan your home for a short time, you could get big return.
"There's a huge advantage, a huge opportunity to the people in the Twin Cities to make some extra money," Shapiro said.
Another option is to rent a single room in your house. If this is something you may consider, there is an informational meeting where you can talk with hosts like Ohnsorg, and figure out if it's right for you. It will be held Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Flat Earth Brewing in St. Paul.