What College Football Home Games Are Really Worth to Short-Term Rental Owners

AirDNA measured the difference in revenue per available room (RevPAR), average daily rate (ADR), and occupancy between game weekends and non-game weekends across Power Four conference schools. The top performers are staggering:

School | RevPAR | ADR | Occupancy

• Alabama (Tuscaloosa) | +454.8% | +66.7% |+232.7%

• Ole Miss (Oxford) | +360.1% | +59.1% | +189.1%

• Auburn | +318.7% | +45.7% | +187.4%

• Penn State (State College) | +142.8% | +41.0% | +72.1%

• Michigan (Ann Arbor) | +105.4% | +42.5% | +44.2%
  

All figures vs. non-game weekends.

Even schools in the lower half of the rankings see meaningful lifts. The median school on the list delivers roughly +60–100% RevPAR on game weekends.

One of the most useful findings in the data is how dramatically performance varies by opponent. The best game weekends can drive occupancy above 95%, while the weakest barely move the needle.

• Alabama's best weekend (Tennessee) hits 94.4% occupancy. Its worst (Eastern Illinois) performs far below that.

• Penn State peaks at 98.6% when Oregon visits.

• Indiana hits 97.4% for Illinois.

The pattern is clear: marquee conference matchups and rivalry games drive the real revenue. Early-season games against smaller programs often don't justify premium pricing.

Colorado has its own version of this dynamic. CU Boulder's move to the Big 12 and the energy around Coach Prime have elevated game-day demand in Boulder and the surrounding area.

Our properties in Lyons and the northern Front Range corridor sit within easy driving distance of Folsom Field, and we see the booking patterns shift during football season.

The same principle applies near Colorado State in Fort Collins and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, both markets where we manage properties.

Here's how we approach football season on behalf of our owners:

• Dynamic pricing aligned to the schedule.
  We don't set a flat "football season" rate. We price game by game based on the opponent, the day of the week, and how far out bookings are trending. A CU vs. Nebraska weekend is not priced the same as a non-conference opener.

• Minimum night requirements.
  Game weekends often draw one- and two-night stays. We adjust minimum night settings to capture the full weekend premium without leaving gaps that kill your weekly yield.

• Multi-channel visibility.
  Game-weekend travelers search across Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and Google. We make sure your property is visible on all of them, not just one platform where it might get buried behind hotel results.

• Lead time monitoring.
  The AirDNA data shows that the best game weekends book out early. We track booking pace against the schedule so we can raise rates when demand is running hot and avoid leaving money on the table.

The AirDNA research reinforces something we talk about with our owners regularly: short-term rental revenue is not a flat line. It's shaped by local events, seasonal patterns, and market dynamics that change week to week. The managers who capture the most value are the ones tracking these patterns and adjusting in real time.

Football season is just one example. Between ski season, summer tourism, concert series, and local festivals, Colorado has a dense calendar of demand drivers. Knowing when to push rates, when to extend minimums, and when to open up availability is where professional management earns its keep.

If you own a property in a Colorado market and want to understand what your game-day revenue potential looks like, we're happy to run the numbers.

Data referenced from AirDNA's "What College Football Home Games Are Really Worth to Short-Term Rental Markets" (August 2026).

Elevate BNB Management manages 60+ short-term rental properties across Colorado. Visit elevate-bnb.com to learn more.