Valley residents will put up fans - for a price -Arizona Republic

Source: AZrepublic.com
By: Jahna Berry

Valley hotel rooms are still available, but many locals are jockeying for the attention of Giants and Patriots fans who are looking for a place to stay.

From Glendale to Mesa and even Paradise Valley, homeowners are hawking their properties on the Internet, paying for ads in out-of-state newspapers and working their personal connections to score a high-rolling Super Bowl renter.

A search on Craigslist.com turned up 1,300 listings for temporary housing available in the Phoenix area that refer to the Super Bowl. Some homes in neighborhoods near the stadium are asking for up to $20,000 for a weeklong stay.

Real luxury costs even more: a mansion-size Paradise Valley vacation home comes with maid service, luxury Italian linens, concierge service and other extras for $25,000 a night.

Many of these would-be entrepreneurs, though, will end up empty-handed, several experts say. Only a small percentage of Super Bowl fans rent houses, and the Greater Phoenix area is an established tourist destination with roughly 55,000 hotel rooms.

Homeowners also risk damage to their homes or other headaches.

Yet the prospect of making thousands of dollars during Super Bowl week has many dreaming of dollar signs, even if their prices are so high that they rival the cost of staying at a hotel or some luxury-vacation rentals.

"I know that there's probably going to be some pretty wild people coming out here, and there's probably going to be a whole bunch of parties, but it's just a risk," said Mesa resident Joseph Buckley, who is offering a condo at Center Street and Brown Road for $850 a night.

But, he added, "it could cover me for a half a year for rent."

Rooms for roadies

Glendale real-estate agent Tom Traw is taking ads out in Boston- and New York-area newspapers for clients who have about 50 homes available for rent. Traw says he has spent $10,750 on newspaper and Internet ads for those homes.

A few of those offering homes have been lucky.

Bill Smith, a business owner, is renting out a vacant five-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot house within walking distance of University of Phoenix Stadium to a crew of NFL Experience stagehands. They are paying $6,000 to stay for a month.

The Super Bowl deal was a fluke, Smith says. The house was empty, and he was looking for a long-term tenant when the roadies' firm called. Smith later put the home he occupies up for rent, but no Super Bowl fans have called.

"When you look at it, the odds of getting a rental are pretty low," Smith said about the flood of ads on the Internet. "I would be surprised if (my home) rented, given the number of people that are out there."

Just 5 to 10 percent of Super Bowl fans rent private homes, sports-marketing executive Robert Tuchman estimates. The only exception was the 2005 Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., where there were fewer hotel rooms.

Yet, every year, droves of homeowners in the Super Bowl host city put their homes up for rent, said Tuchman, president of New York-based TSE Sports & Entertainment.

Each year, Tuchman's company arranges Super Bowl packages for about 1,000 guests.

The all-inclusive packages, which range from $4,000 to $6,000 per person, include a game ticket, housing and celebrity events.

He said that if someone's home isn't rented by now, the odds of getting a Super Bowl guest may be slim.

"The majority of people who rent homes are corporations, and they make plans months before the game," Tuchman said.

Average vs. luxury

Although private homeowners are charging more than hotels, their offerings pale in comparison with high-end vacation rentals that are under professional management, said Margie Van Zee, president of Bella Palazzo.

Her firm offers "boutique villas" with plenty of extras at a cost of $1,500 to $30,000 a night, depending on the property. Van Zee has 25 Arizona properties marketed for the Super Bowl and half are rented, she said.

That includes the $25,000-a-night Paradise Valley estate, with 11,000 square feet and sleeping accommodations for 15.

Yet Van Zee says that she has heard of residents who are asking similar prices or more for private homes.

"These people," Van Zee said, "are trying to rent their cheesy little tract homes."

And those tract homes also will compete against local hotels. Doug MacKenzie, communications director for the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he is aware of 20 to 30 hotels that still have rooms. Professionally managed properties also can offer amenities that many homeowners can't, such as room service, wake-up calls and maid service.

Holding out for money

Meanwhile, dozens of property owners are still trying to find Super Bowl renters.

Scott Garrison is still looking for someone to lease a few vacation rentals in Scottsdale.

No one had jumped on a $2.7 million home on Camelback Mountain offered for the week at $25,000 or a three-bedroom condominium near downtown Scottsdale for $12,000 for four nights.

Dave Jackson of Chandler is offering his two-bedroom house near Warner and Dobson roads for $1,500 a night or less if someone takes it for a week. Amenities include a big backyard, hot tub and an unexpected extra. He's willing to be a chauffeur, driving guests around town in his 1996 Jeep Cherokee. "I made the offer just to be different," he said, "to get more eyes on our little ad."