But not everyone can plop down thousands of dollars or wants to stay hours from downtown Washington. Fortunately for them, some homeowners or renters are willing to make more reasonable deals with out-of-towners.
Donna Beausoleil, an empty-nester in Silver Spring, is renting the three unused bedrooms in her home for $150 a night each. She is taking in people from Alaska, Atlanta and California, even offering to pick them up at the airport and make breakfast for a small additional fee.
Overwhelmed with responses to her ad, Beausoleil has been acting as a broker, posting the inquiries on her neighborhood listserv and farming out visitors to friends. When her son mentioned that he might want to come home for the inauguration, she told him he would have to stay with his father.
She's seen how much other people are asking but says $150 is more than enough.
"Some of the stuff I've seen is just obscene and greedy," she said.
In her frenetic search for cheap space, Stephanie Holloway, who plans to travel to Washington with her 5-year-old daughter and possibly her mother, contacted colleges and political clubs and scoured Craigslist.
The 27-year-old vice president of Capital City Young Democrats in Austin, Texas, said she got some creepy responses online - like the people who asked to see photographs of her. One man said she could have his in-law apartment for $100 if she could get him two tickets to the inaugural ball and the swearing-in. As if!
But finally a nice woman offered Holloway a spot in her Alexandria, Va., home - at no cost.
Her host, Maryann Swinson, 50, a federal worker who lives in a basement apartment, said cashing in on the inauguration just seemed wrong.
"What was so emotionally empowering about the whole Obama win is that it reminded everybody that we can get together," Swinson said. "I just wanted to give a hand."
Baltimore Sun reporter Mary Gail Hare contributed to this article.
