SAN FRANCISCO—In the San Francisco Bay Area, where high housing costs are notorious, residents looking to make a quick buck are offering to rent their homes at super-sized prices to the 1 million visitors expected for Super Bowl 50 festivities.
There’s a luxury 8,500-square-foot home in San Jose, California, listed for $10,000 a night. A 400-square-foot cottage in the same city is going for $3,900 for the three-night weekend.
A four-bedroom apartment near San Francisco’s “Super Bowl City” is listed at $1,495 a night, with a minimum six-night stay.
And let’s not forget a cozy treehouse for two in a 150-year-old oak tree a half hour drive from downtown San Francisco. You can call out for pizza and never mind that the bathroom is down the tree. Best of all, it’s just $495 a night.
Whether customers will pay such prices is uncertain, even in an area where hotel rooms are limited for the week-long extravaganza. Of an estimated 50,000 hotel rooms in the nine-county Bay Area, the NFL has booked nearly half for players and their families, officials, and employees, according to the local bowl organizing committee.
That means regular out-of-towners are on the hook to book a place for pre-game festivities in San Francisco and the game Feb. 7 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, about 40 miles to the south, when the Denver Broncos square off against the Carolina Panthers.
