Nearly 5,000 hospitable Washingtonians have listed their homes or apartments on the online classifieds site Craigslist.com in hope of getting a financial boost during the week of Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.
Rental offerings range from the outlandish to the opulent. For $50 per night, travelers can camp in a Rockville backyard with a less-than-subtle political message: “Up for rent is space in a tent city,” the advertisement said. “A neo-Hooverville,” referring to the shantytowns set up during the Great Depression presidency of Herbert Hoover.
For those looking for more than a shanty, $60,000 will cover a four-bedroom Woodbridge, home complete with meals, maid service and “a Mercedes at your leisure” for the week.
So far, residents seem to be expecting the frugal as opposed to the flush.
While there are 96 listings between $20,000 and $60,000, there are about 1,500 for less than $1,000.
But while some D.C. denizens are eager to cash in on the festivities, they’re taking care to ensure the week isn’t memorable for the wrong reasons.
Darby Wiggins, who’s renting her Arlington apartment for a weekly rate of $2,200, said she called her insurance agent to make sure she’d still be covered should anything go awry.
“I’m going to get out any valuables, and I was told to have my deductible ready just in case,” Wiggins said.
Should all go well, Wiggins said she’d use the extra income for some car repairs.
Other tips offered on Web sites such as Subleaser.com recommend demanding a deposit (“a responsible tenant should have no qualms with putting down a deposit”) and stating a maximum number of boarders instead of simply the number of bedrooms.
Joe Inyang, a Glendale, Md., resident charging $5,000 for the week, intends to stay home while travelers move into his basement to ensure potential riffraff stay in line.
“You must have two payments in advance,” Inyang said, and “all payments must be certified checks, cashier checks or money orders.”
The inaugural cash, Inyang said, would go back into the home.
“It’ll probably help pay for the mortgage,” he said.
And while many will enjoy the January bonus, not everyone can be so lucky.
“I have friends coming to town,” D.C. resident Gretchen Guffy said. “It wouldn’t feel right to charge them.”
