2024 Solar Eclipse: Short-term rentals along path of totality almost completely booked
Millions of people are expected to travel into the path of totality on April 8th for a shot at seeing a solar eclipse.
AirDNA, a company that studies short-term rentals, shared the occupancy numbers for Airbnb and Vrbo in the largest 25 cities in the path of the eclipse.
Only Fort Worth, Texas (77.9%) was below 80 percent occupancy and several cities like Dallas (95.3%), Cleveland (97.5%) and Buffalo, New York (98.2%) are nearly completely booked.
"Very strong demand for guests looking to go to cities in the path of the eclipse," said Jamie Lane, AirDNA's Chief Economist. "
AirDNA shared a map of occupancy levels across the U.S., where dark blue represents areas with 10% occupancy and dark red represents cities with 100% occupancy.
(Source: AirDNA)
On April 7th, the day before the eclipse, the map shows a large dark red stripe right along the eclipse's path of totality.
"What’s amazing is we didn’t filter the data at all. All it did was we put the colored occupancy, high occupancy in red, low occupancy in blue and it sort of lit up the path of the eclipse," said Lane.
In February, Airbnb said Texas was the most-booked state in the country for the eclipse.
READ MORE: Where to find free solar eclipse glasses before April 8
Airbnb said it has "witnessed a 1,000% surge in demand for cities along the path of eclipse totality, including a nearly 600% surge in searches on the platform for listings in Texas."
The short-term rental statistics not only highlight the economic picture surrounding the eclipse, but a bigger picture involves the fascination with the phenomenon.
"What’s also interesting is how far in advance people have been preparing for this," said Lane. "This is something people have been looking forward to for years, so we've seen the vast majority of people booking months and months in advance."
Total Solar Eclipse Short-Term Rental Occupancy
(Source: AirDNA)
Total Solar Eclipse Path of Totality
Projected path and time of totality for the 2024 total solar eclipse over the U.S.
The path of totality, where the moon completely covers the sun, will move from Texas to Maine throughout the day on Monday, April 8th.
Southern Texas will see the peak of totality first, around 1:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
READ MORE: Look out for comet, planets during the total solar eclipse
The total solar eclipse will end after it leaves northern Maine around 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight time.
The exact timing of the eclipse depends on where you are viewing it.