Kent Schlopy, of Coldwell Banker Premier Realty, the official licensee for the residential accommodations for the Winter Olympics 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah, says that three types of housing are offered on the UtahHomes!com site for visitors to the Olympics in February, 2002.
Homestay reservations are for vacated homes, condos and apartments that are furnished. HomeHost is the program for owner-occupied homes with rooms available to guests, similar to a bed-and-breakfast. The Group Accommodations plan is set up to handle groups of 10 to 100 people and is available in large condo and apartment complexes.
UtahHomes has about 600-700 homes available and 600+ apartments, with 360-degree virtual tours. Kent notes that they learned from previous Olympics in Sydney and Atlanta about the numbers to expect and market pricing for the home rentals.
Contrary to what some people think about being able to make 'big money' on their homes during Olympics, Schlopy says that the housing generally rents for $100 per room per night, averaging $300 a night overall. Executive mansions and upscale housing can go for as high as $1,000 per room per night. Homeowners set the rental prices and can purchase a special insurance policy to protect their homes and possessions during the rental period.
Olympic visitors can review housing options and book their accommodations on Utahhomes.com or use a toll-free number (800-606-0453). Three six-day stays are offered to visitors. They have accepted 800 homes in the program and have found the 2-bedroom home to be the most popular choice of the visitors. Homes are located in downtown Salt Lake City and Park City. The site has 1 million to 1.5 million visitors each month and they expect that rental requests will be very high in the fall as visitors firm up their plans for the Olympic events.
Program Director Kent Schlopy (pronounced SCHLO-pee) has another connection to the Olympics - his son Erik, who began skiing in Stowe, Vermont, at age 2, will be competing in the Alpine skiing events.
Ryan Dame of Housing2002 says that the idea for his web site had its genesis in Atlanta when he and his family went to the summer games in 1998. They had a difficult time finding a place to stay and finally were referred to family who rented out the basement of their house for 4 days. The host family gave them a small breakfast each morning as he and his family scurried off to the days events.
With his classmate, Ryan Holwege, at Brigham Young University, he built the Housing2002 web site and was successful in renting out 38 houses in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival. Housing2002 was entered in a DECA competition at the college, winning the state competition, and placing 2nd in the national competition. DECA is national collegiate organization for marketing, management, merchandising and entrepreneurship students.
With the prize money, Housing2002, which was operational, was expanded to offer housing for the Winter Olympics. They did a direct mail campaign to promote the site offering ad space for $29.95 a month. They are not affiliated with the Olympics and do not offer property management services. Trafffic to their site increases about 10% each month and they average 100-150 homes advertised as available with rental rates averaging $150/bedroom per night. When people rent out their properties they discontinue their monthly ad on Housing2002.
Jo-Anne Dressendofer, president of IMEDIA, Inc. of Morristown, New Jersey was in Park City on a business trip late last year when she learned of the Marriott Mountainside Villas timeshare units for sale that came packaged with Olympic tickets. She bought 4 units as an investment for $110,000 and plans to use rental revenue to pay down the mortgage. Joanne says that each unit sleeps 4 people and she liked the idea that during the Olympics you could sit in the hot tub and watch the events. Joanne chose the week that includes three days of the bobsleigh, speed skating, giant slalom, ice skating, ice hockey and the closing ceremonies. She expects that she will be able to rent out all of the units but is also considering attending the Olympics herself and enjoying that hot tub.
Pat Rioux
