Airbnb Hosts in College Towns Fumble the Big Games With Too-High Rates

It would seem that Airbnb hosts in college towns would earn a lot of money when the home team is hosting its biggest rival—say, a game between the University of Florida and Florida State, or the University of Michigan and Ohio State. But recent research found that for many Airbnb hosts those events are a blown opportunity to score big bucks.

That’s because these hosts jack their prices up so high that their space goes unrented. And the researchers suggest the reason is what they call “affiliation bias”—in other words, the hosts just can’t stand the visiting team’s fans.