Airbnb hosts whining that nobody will book their exorbitantly priced rentals

With the Super Bowl 50 host committee expecting more than one million visitors to descend upon the Bay Area for Sunday night's big game, homeowners and hoteliers alike had hoped to make a small fortune renting out their real estate to big-spending fans. Instead, a cacophony of disappointment is echoing across San Francisco Bay. Super Bowl attendees, it turns out, can spot an overpriced accommodation when they see one.

In a classic case of misreading the market, Airbnb and other home rental hosts in particular have flooded the pool of available listings with rental rates several times higher than what they would otherwise go for. Beyond Pricing co-founder Ian McHenry tells the San Jose Mercury News that he has seen this pattern before:

"The NFL buys up blocks of hotel rooms, the media report that, people looking for places to stay start panicking, so people start listing on Airbnb for thousands of dollars a night, then the media picks up on that until you have a glut of supply because everyone wants in on the action. But most of these properties will just sit there and get no offers."

Those living outside of the Bay Area may find it difficult to appreciate the plight of those frustrated renters. Kim Lain told the San Francisco Chronicle that while she had hoped to make $25,000 renting out her three bedroom home just 10 minutes from Levi's Stadium for five nights, she has yet to find a renter. At press time, the home was now instead listed at just under $2,000 per night, and still unbooked.

Data from Tripping.com shows that the average price of a home rental in the area for Super Bowl weekend is currently $1,005 per night. But the average price of homes that have actually been booked is just $225 per night. Hotels are similarly suffering. After The Inn at Jack London Square across the Bay in Oakland raised prices from $145 to $299 a night for the weekend, reservations barely ticked up above levels for non-Super Bowl weekends. Manager Momi Assayag expressed his disappointment:

"Normally this time of year, we'd have 50 percent occupancy, so we're only up slightly. This is not what we expected; there are a lot of rooms available and some hotels have now begun reducing their rates."

But for the true football fanatic that doesn't feel inclined to deal with Super Bowl mania in San Francisco, there's always this $5,000 a night Charlotte, NC Airbnb listing. Roman Harper of the Carolina Panthers is offering up his own home for the night while he's occupied in San Francisco playing in the big game.