Denver

Anticipating a crush of attendees at the Democratic National Convention this month and a shortage of hotel rooms, some Denver residents are renting out their homes at mile-high prices.

Owners of one-bedroom apartments near the convention site are asking as much as $750 -- per night. Moderate-size houses are seeking $1,500 or more a night, and the owner of a mansion suitable to host big parties or fund-raisers is asking $100,000 for all of convention week.

Over 50,000 people are expected for Denver's biggest-ever convention, which starts Aug. 25. About 5,000 of them are delegates, who will attend the convention in the Pepsi Center along with media representatives and volunteers. Tens of thousands more are expected for parties, protests, fund-raisers and the acceptance speech by Sen. Barack Obama at Invesco Field, which will seat about 80,000, organizers say.

All of them need places to stay. While the Denver area has 42,000 hotel rooms, they are spread over a metropolitan region roughly the size of Connecticut. Downtown Denver has only about 8,000 rooms. Hotels are virtually sold out as far away as Boulder, some 30 miles away, although organizers expect some rooms will open up as convention-goers' plans firm up.

Matthew B. Slaby for The Wall Street Journal Blake B. Adams, a 27-year-old Republican, rented out his 700-square-foot, one-bedroom condo for $750 a night to a Chrysler executive attending the Democratic National Convention. That netted Mr. Adams $2,800 after commissions. He purchased the unit just three weeks ago for $365,000 and plans to be out of town during the convention.

Intense demand for private housing is common when cities host the Super Bowl or Olympics, but political conventions don't typically draw nearly the crowds of spectator sports. During the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston, numerous residents advertised their homes for lease, but there were few takers; organizers said convention-goers typically stayed with friends or doubled up in hotel rooms.

In the years leading up to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, residents there thought rentals would yield a small fortune, says Shawn Stinson, director of communications for the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. "At first, everyone thought they could all retire off of the money they made," Mr. Stinson says. While recently built, conveniently located homes attracted renters, most homeowners didn't get the rates they had expected, he says.

Some residents of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area are trying to capitalize on the Republican National Convention starting Sept. 1 in St. Paul, Minn. Craigslist shows about 900 RNC-related housing posts. But that gathering isn't expected to draw as many people as the Democratic convention.

The Denver Craigslist showed more than 7,000 home-rental offerings for the convention Thursday, as well as dozens of posts by people seeking housing at more reasonable rates. Dedicated housing Web sites also have sprung up, including DenverConventionHousing.com and RentDNC.com.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal," says Frank Kocur, owner of Denver-based Corporate Housing Solutions, which is charging 25% to owners in exchange for landing renters.

Matthew B. Slaby for The Wall Street Journal Tracy and Jeff Lewis have been unable to get the $4,500 a night they are seeking for their 2006 house during the convention. But they have rented it to a TV news crew for five days ahead of the event as a staging area, for a total of $18,000.

In Denver's Hilltop neighborhood, Tracy Lewis, an art dealer, and her husband, Jeff Lewis, an assistant film director, this spring offered their five-bedroom house for $4,000 a night during convention week. It wasn't until mid-July that interest in the 6,000-square-foot home materialized. A bodyguard toured the house on behalf of a wealthy Democratic donor (questions included whether their Internet connection was secure). Although the deal fell through, the Lewises have rented the house to a TV news crew for five days before the convention, as a staging area, for a total of $18,000. That, Ms. Lewis says, "will be four months of mortgage payments for us." Last week, the couple upped their asking price to $4,500 a night during the convention. A Georgia delegation has shown interest but they have no takers so far.

One reason for Denver's space crunch is that many more delegates, volunteers and others are bringing their families than is typical for conventions, says Natalie Wyeth, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Convention Committee. The convention also is drawing more members of the media than expected, over 15,000, including from abroad and from celebrity magazines, Web sites and blogs, says Angela Berardino, a spokeswoman for the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Joe LeMonnier

Ms. Berardino says she is fielding about five calls a day from media, lobbyists and celebrities trying to squeeze into hotels. While some hotel rooms have been opening up, anyone booking this late needs to consider nonhotel options, she says. "There are no more strings to be pulled," she adds. "There is no one left to bump."

Residents, lured by the prospect of easy money, are responding. But as rental houses flood the market, brokers and owners have been forced to get creative to attract takers. Tom Brainard, of brokerage Urban Market Partners, cut the price on a two-bedroom loft in the city's popular LoDo (short for Lower Downtown) neighborhood to $1,190 a night from $1,500 and is considering offering complimentary tickets to a VIP benefit event. Some owners are offering themselves up as chauffeurs as well as providing maid service and the use of their boats.

Kevin Joseph, of concierge firm Wow Town Now, has joined with agent Mark Beyerle of Denver Realty Services to offer roughly 80 short-term downtown rentals plus high-end amenities, ranging from fridge stocking to postconvention private-jet travel packages. On a recent evening, Mr. Joseph received a message on his iPhone requesting two vans for a music star and his entourage attending a media party.

"Everyone's calling now," he says. "It's our very own Democratic economic stimulus package."

Write to Christina S.N. Lewis at christina.lewis@wsj.com

Real estate growth impacted due to high interest rates: ICICI

After Bubble, Ghost Towns Across U.S.

Builders Tout Home Incentives