Looking for a last-minute place to holiday this Australia Day and can’t believe the prices? You’re not alone.

Huge demand from cooped-up Victorians has seen accommodation prices surge over the coming weekend. Airbnb hosts, who can set their own prices on the online platform, are asking for as much as $1500 a night for three-bedroom homes by the beach.

One three-bedroom house in Torquay seen by Domain was asking $1593 a night over the Australia Day weekend, more than twice its $727 a night cost in off-peak periods. In Smiths Beach near Phillip Island, another three-bedroom house was priced at $1501 a night over the Australia Day weekend and off-peak it’s $924 a night.

Holiday bookings through real estate agencies, although mostly booked out as early as November, are still priced between $500 and $800 a night for a three-bedroom house.

David Muir, director at Surf Coast Holiday Rentals covering Torquay and Jan Juc, said in his experience, high accommodation prices often attracted party crowds.

“We see a lot of opportunism on Airbnb from property owners wanting to make every day a winner,” he said.

“Our property owners are fairly attuned to the fact that if you price families out of a holiday house stay, all you’re going to get is single people, young people, high-risk type tenancies and we’ve certainly seen plenty of those over the course of the last four weeks.”

Source：https://www.domain.com.au/news/victorian-holiday-rental-prices-skyrocket-over-australia-day-weekend-1019767/