Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour leads to a surge in Airbnb bookings and prompts numerous new owners to list their homes

Taylor Swift’s “Swiftonomics” strikes again: This time she’s taking the homestay industry by storm.

As Ms. Swift’s fans travel the world to see the pop star’s sensational Eras Tour, the number of Airbnb bookings in areas along the tour route has skyrocketed.

Its impressive impact is comparable to the increase in bookings following the recent total solar eclipse – an event that will not be repeated in America until 2044 – Haven Thorn, Airbnb’s communications director, told the Sun.

As the country prepared for the total solar eclipse in February, over a thousand new hosts on the other side of totality opened their homes to guests on the homestay platform.

A similar trend can be observed in Ms. Swift’s “Eras Tour.”

Homeowners in the areas where Ms. Swift will perform have recognized that the Eras tour offers them a “significant economic opportunity to make a lot of money in a relatively short period of time,” Thorn says.

As a result, Airbnb is seeing a slew of new owners listing their properties, expanding the group of hosts known as “seasonal hosts” or “large event hosts.”

“I like to think of Taylor Swift as a mini-eclipse of the sun,” he adds. “Wherever she goes, she creates economic opportunities. She opens up new hosts. When Taylor Swift is in town, it’s good business for everyone involved.”

Additionally, these hosts help expand accommodation options for Swifties in cities that may not have the necessary hotel capacity to accommodate concertgoers.

“If they welcome Taylor Swift later this year,” says Thorn, “they’re not going to be able to open a hotel in just a few months, are they?”

Swifties can use homestay platforms to secure accommodation in the city where the pop star is performing.

Ms. Swift’s influence on the European Airbnb market is already noticeable: According to an Airbnb report, searches by American tourists for accommodation on the platform increased by almost 70 percent during Ms. Swift’s European tour.

The number becomes even more impressive when broken down by city: In Edinburgh, the number of searches for stays on Airbnb increased by 500 percent compared to the previous month.

As Ms. Swift returns to the States in a few months to finish her tour, cities like Indianapolis are seeing “record searches,” Thorn says.

The Airbnb findings are further evidence of Ms Swift’s unprecedented influence on the economy – aptly called “Swiftonomics” – which has caught the attention of politicians, economists and even central bankers.

Just a few weeks ago, analysts at TD Securities reported that the increase in tourism following Swift’s London tour – which coincided with the release of an important inflation report – could prompt the Bank of England to postpone a long-awaited interest rate cut.

“An increase in hotel prices could be significant, potentially adding as much as 30 basis points to services inflation and 15 basis points to headline inflation,” the analysts told CNBC.

According to Airbnb figures, searches for private accommodation in London increased by a whopping 300 percent after bookings for the pop star’s performance dates went online.

Increased demand has pushed the average nightly price for an Airbnb stay in London during Ms Swift’s tour up from the usual £184 to £344, online mortgage adviser Mojo Mortgages found.

Ms Swift will round out the European leg of the tour with performances in Milan, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Munich, Warsaw, Vienna and London before taking a month-long break in September.

The pop sensation returns to America in October for a series of performances in Miami, New Orleans and Indianapolis before finishing her tour in Canada.

Their last performance will be on December 8th at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.