Cleveland resident Stephanie Diamant bought a duplex on West Boulevard last year, planning to live on one side and rent out the other unit to tenants.
She was having trouble finding a good match until a bright idea flashed over her at a dinner with friends.
“Someone was like, 'Did you hear about the eclipse?'” Diamant said. “They were like, ‘People are renting their apartments and houses like crazy, and there’s like nothing left.’”
Inspired, Diamant listed both units on Airbnb, a short-term home rental site.
Both were quickly nabbed up by people traveling to Cleveland to watch the total solar eclipse, she said.
“Within one hour of the post being live, it rented immediately on Airbnb,” Diamant said.
Diamant’s guests are part of the hundreds of thousands of people expected to travel across the country for the eclipse. With many hotels already booked, travelers are turning to short-term home rentals like Airbnbs for a place to stay.
The company is seeing major demand both for the day of the eclipse and the weekend preceding it, Airbnb spokesperson Haven Thorn said.
“That April 8 weekend has just seen a skyrocketed amount of searches on the platform for stays across the path of totality,” Thorn said.
Much of Northeast Ohio, including Cleveland, Akron and Lorain, is in that path — meaning the skies will completely darken for a few minutes.
A recent Airbnb report found Cleveland was the fourth most-booked U.S. city in the path of totality, behind Austin, Texas, Dallas and Indianapolis.
Ohio overall saw a 600% increase in searches on the site, Thorn added.
The report also found at least 1,000 people across the country are becoming Airbnb hosts for the first time, like Diamant, due to the demand, Thorn added.
"They realize that, 'Hey, this is a significant economic opportunity for me. I can open up my home and make a significant amount of income in a short amount of time,” Thorn said.
The economic potential is not just for individual hosts, but also businesses in the communities where people are staying, said Benny Esparra, another Airbnb host.
Esparra owns a listing in a quiet neighborhood near Lanterman’s Mill, a historic landmark in Youngstown.
The early springtime isn’t the time of year you’d expect to have a flock of visitors to Northeast Ohio, he said.
“It’s going to be amazing to have an influx of guests coming in, contributing to local restaurants, contributing to these middle-class folks that share their homes for Airbnb,” Esparra said. “All that funding just goes right back into their local economies in quarters where we typically don't have that type of influx. So, that's humongous.”
Local visitors’ bureaus could not provide an estimate of the economic impact of the eclipse, but Destination Cleveland, the tourist bureau for the Cleveland area, is planning to conduct a study measuring it, said Emily Lauer, vice president of communications.
Depending on the weather, officials are expecting 200,000 day visitors to Cuyahoga County on April 8, Lauer said.
Many parks and restaurants are planning events and local emergency management officials are warning of heavy traffic congestion across the region.
Meanwhile, many Northeast Ohioans are preparing to open their homes for the celestial event.
Anne Tillie, who lives in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, has been planning an eclipse gathering with her in-laws since the solar eclipse in 2017, she said.
"As soon as we knew [the next eclipse] was going to be in Cleveland, we were like, 'All right, they're going to stay with us. They're going to make... a little visit out of it," Tillie said. "But then ... my brother-in-law's family was like, 'Oh, yeah, well, we're coming that weekend. We want to see the eclipse. Can we come to your roof?'"
Tillie began planning an eclipse gathering with her family members on the rooftop of her home. Once some of her friends found out, the small gathering soon turned into a full-blown party, she said.
"I'm like counting on my fingers. I'm like, 'Oh, okay, we might have to pump the brakes on like the number of people we can invite, you know, for capacity concerns," Tillie said.
Esparra, the Youngstown Airbnb host, is hoping some special gestures and decorations will earn him some extra stars from his eclipse travelers.
“We're providing telescopes and sunglasses with ISO-authorized shades for the eclipse, instructions on how to use them. We have a little package,” he said. “I think we're making sure that we have some really solid decorations, some glow-in-the-dark stars, some binoculars in case they want to do stargazing the night before.”
Esparra also serves as a regional co-host for Airbnb, operating discussion forums where hosts can share knowledge and questions.
When it comes to the eclipse, some hosts have expressed some concerns about traffic congestion, he said.
“How do you prepare guests for the right departure? Do you extend their stay automatically so they leave a little later? Do you provide them with some different routes?” he said. “I know traffic has been something that's been a big talk track in the community.”
As for Diamant in Cleveland, she’s still decorating and getting the units ready for her very first guests, who are coming to town for the eclipse weekend.
She hopes they, and the thousands of others expected to arrive, will like what they see and maybe visit again.
“This is kind of a way to show the world and... anybody coming that this is Cleveland, maybe you didn’t know it before, but we are really accommodating,” she said. “I think if you offer anything, small discounts, or even just be nice — we’re known for that, the Midwest nice thing — I think people will come back after this.”
If the eclipse weekend goes well, Diamant plans to continue operating the Airbnb as a side hustle, she said.
