College Football’s Impact on Short-Term Rental Revenue

Source

AirDNA, College Football’s Impact on Short-Term Rental Revenue

What It Says

AirDNA analyst Linda Rollins examined 32 SEC and Big Ten markets to quantify the financial impact of home game weekends. The research finds that in small college towns, a handful of home games can generate up to 25% of a market’s total annual revenue. In these locations, Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) can skyrocket by more than 400% compared to non-game fall weekends. However, the "football effect" is diluted in major metropolitan areas where high supply and diverse economies buffer the impact of stadium crowds.

Why It Matters

For short-term rental (STR) operators in college towns, these weekends are the most critical dates on the calendar. Mispricing a single high-demand game can result in thousands of dollars in lost potential income. For technology vendors, the data underscores the need for hyper-local, event-based revenue management tools that account for specific opponent quality and alumni travel patterns rather than just general seasonal trends.

Useful Signals

• Small Market Dominance: Tuscaloosa, AL (+454.8%), Oxford, MS (+360.1%), and Auburn, AL (+318.7%) saw the highest RevPAR increases.
• Occupancy Gaps: High-profile conference games create massive shifts; for example, Penn State sees 98.6% occupancy against Oregon, but only 53.2% against Florida International.
• Metro Market Resilience: Larger markets like Austin, TX, and Seattle, WA, show much lower—and sometimes even negative—relative impact from games because their STR inventory is so large (11,000+ listings).
• ADR Premiums: Average Daily Rates (ADR) in markets like Oxford, MS, can reach $707 during game weekends, representing a nearly 60% jump over standard fall rates.
• Supply Scarcity: In towns like Starkville, MS, where available listings average only 500, even moderate demand spikes lead to high occupancy (87.2%).

STR Tech Report Take

This data confirms that for tertiary and rural markets, event-driven demand is the primary driver of profitability. While dynamic pricing software is common, the massive variance between a "rivalry" weekend and a "cupcake" non-conference game suggests that automated tools may still need manual overrides or better integration with athletic schedules. Tech vendors who can successfully map fan-base travel propensities—identifying which alumni bases travel the heaviest—will provide a significant edge to hosts in these SEC and Big Ten hubs.

Original Source

https://www.airdna.co/blog/college-football-short-term-rental-revenue