RIVER NORTH — Chicago is one of Airbnb's most popular cities, and nothing drew visitors to the home-sharing service like the NeoCon World Trade Fair at the Merchandise Mart in June.
Airbnb released data Wednesday showing that NeoCon visitors helped to more than triple the average number of home-sharing guests in Chicago on June 13.
According to the company, Airbnb welcomed 315,400 guests to the city from July 1, 2015, to June 30 this year, and the number on June 13 was 238 percent of the daily average, which translates to almost 3,000 people staying in Airbnb properties that night.
Airbnb spokesman Ben Breit said Chicago is the fourth-most-popular city in the United States for the service, behind New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and ranks in the top 15 globally.
Even so, other, less-popular Midwestern cities saw even sharper one-day spikes by percentage in the last year. The Kentucky Derby caused a tenfold increase on the average number of guests for Louisville, closely followed by the 830 percent increase in Indianapolis for the Indy 500 and a 732 percent increase in Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series.
The University of Wisconsin's commencement brought in the biggest one-day spike in Madison, and Summerfest did the same for Milwaukee. Sporting events caused one-day spikes in Cleveland for the NBA Finals and in St. Louis for the NHL Conference Finals. Twin Cities Pride brought in the biggest spike for Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Yet none of those cities came close to Chicago's 315,400 annual Airbnb guests, indicating the city had a more sustained daily average.
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