By KATHARINE Q.


SEELYE WASHINGTON - A three-bedroom house in suburban Virginia is said to have been rented for $57,000 for inauguration week in January. A week at a four-bedroom house in suburban Maryland was listed at $60,000, though that, like other offerings, may be wishful thinking.

As Washington prepares for the historic inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African-American president, more than one million people are expected to descend on the capital. Yet the five-county metropolitan area has just 95,000 hotel rooms.

The demand for hotels outstripped the supply more than two months before the January 20 inauguration, not just in Washington and environs but as far away as Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Even campsites are filling up.

At this late date, finding a place to stay for the swearing-in will come down to luck - and the ability and willingness to pay. While many people who own or rent here are putting up family and friends without charge, many others smell profit and are auctioning off their homes, rooms, sofas and even spots on the basement floor.

All of this enterprise has prompted complaints that some are exploiting the historic moment by price-gouging.

Such high prices are“barring earnest people who want to witness and participate in something remarkable, positive, and promising”from coming to the capital, wrote one poster on Craigslist, who had rented his or her home for“a very modest sum”and urged others to do the same.“Let’s act like we really do want it to be a democracy,”the poster wrote.

But another poster responded that it cost money to rent out one’s house. Besides, this poster added: “Do I deserve to avail myself to a little windfall profit from the smart investment I made and sacrifice for to live so centrally- Darn right I do. So get over it.”

One of the highest prices obtained so far appears to be $57,000 for a week in a threebedroom home near Chantilly, Virginia, about 39 kilometers from Washington. At least that is the amount Keith Bell said he had heard from the lawyer who reviewed the contract signed by the renter, who is coming from overseas.

Learning of that price prompted Mr.Bell, a 42-year-old lawyer for the federal government, to think he might get even more for his four-bedroom home in Lanham, Maryland, which is about 18 kilometers from Washington. He posted an offer on the online forum Craigslist: $60,000 for the week.

“After hearing the ridiculous amounts that people were renting their houses/ apartments for,”he said,“I decided to post this ad to see if it would generate any interest at all.”

It did not. A couple of days later, Mr.Bell altered his pricing structure to $6,000 a night, which, he said, was “more in line with market rates.”

Well, that depends. Inauguration-week visitors can spend a lot less than that. A three-bedroom home in the Brookland section of Washington is going for $350 a night, minimum two nights, plus $50 for each additional person.

Or they can take a chance on a spot at a group house on Capitol Hill (with housemates), advertised with this humble request: “Make me an offer.”

But visitors can also pay a lot more - $25,000 for a “weekend rental” for a onebedroom apartment in Arlington, Virginia (“luxurious air mattress available”). And the owner of a 13-meter-long houseboat docked in the Washington Channel is asking $20,000 for a week’s stay. The Champagne is free.

The private rentals flourished as hotel space dwindled. Online travel sites show that almost every hotel room in the metropolitan area is booked for the day of the inauguration and at least three days before.

The presidential suite at the Ritz Carlton Georgetown, however, is still available: four nights for $99,000 (that includes a post-inaugural three-night stay at the Ritz on Grand Cayman in the Caribbean).


Washington-area residents are renting out their homes at premium
rates to people coming to town for the Obama inauguration./MICHAEL TEMCHINE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES