During this year’s Balloon Fiesta, nearly 7,000 homes in the metro are being rented out by visitors.
“We use vacation rentals so we thought, let’s go ahead and try it out from the landlord side of things,” said first-time renter Mike Carter.
For Balloon Fiesta 2017, roughly 4,600 people rented out their homes on vacation rental site Airbnb. This year, around 6,800 people are renting out their homes on the site.
“Balloon Fiesta, that is the hotel and landlord Christmas for Albuquerque,” said Carter.
Some homeowners will only rent their homes during Fiesta, hoping to cash in on the big weekends.
“Our house during fiesta has rented for $529 a night, and our regular price when it’s not Balloon Fiesta is $279 a night,” said Carter.
Airbnb says guests started booking listings for this year’s event in 2016, and they’re seeing a spike in bookings for this year’s event. Friday, October 12 is already on track to be Airbnb’s biggest night ever in Albuquerque.
Balloon Fiesta starts on October 6 and ends October 14.
