DNC groups skip rentals, and visions of cash fade

For local residents, it looked like a gold mine: thousands of delegates and their guests headed to Boston for the Democratic National Convention. Surely the city would run out of hotel rooms. Surely the honored guests would want other accommodations. Something more private, perhaps? Something, say, just steps from presumptive nominee John F. Kerry's handsome Louisburg Square abode?

So the people of Beacon Hill and plenty of neighborhoods farther afield put their gracious townhouses and modest studio apartments up for rent, at prices befitting the mad rush they were sure would ensue. Visions of fast bucks danced in their heads.

And what did they get in return? Just about nothing, most of them.

''I'm afraid we've been sorely disappointed," said Celina Barton, who is offering her family's ''historic home on Beacon Hill close to Senator Kerry's house" for $30,000 for July and some of August. ''I expected there to be such an excess of people for the number of hotel rooms available that renting houses would be a good thing to do."

Barton's four-bedroom, single-family house, which is also for sale for $1.585 million, is one of the many residences in Kerry's neighborhood and elsewhere that have gone begging for convention week. The 35,000 delegates, guests, and reporters expected to descend on Boston for the convention that begins July 26 appear to have had their accommodation needs taken care of. Most who will arrive in Boston in less than two weeks seem to have chosen collegiality over luxury, preferring to hang around with their co-workers or delegations rather than opting for exclusive isolation.

Advertising your home for rent is ''an exercise in futility," said Patrick Moscaritolo, head of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. ''This is not a spectator-type event, like the 100th running of the Boston Marathon or the Ryder Cup, where people are coming in large numbers and they don't have accommodations and they've decided to join in with others and rent a house. People coming to a political convention want to stay with their own delegations, or with their Democratic family, the Democratic governors or the finance committee or the national committee."

In 1999, the Ryder Cup brought thousands to The Country Club in Brookline, and some of the houses close to the course were rented by corporations, journalists, and players for tens of thousands of dollars, Moscaritolo said, and the houses were used mostly as reception venues.

But corporations will be doing their entertaining at Boston landmarks like the Science Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts during the Democratic party's confab, he said. The social side of the convention, not to mention the shuttle service for delegates and guests, is based around the hotels, said officials at the Democratic National Convention Committee. In vacation terms, the Democratic National Convention is the equivalent of an all-inclusive resort, rather than self-guided adventure.

Which has been a considerable letdown for those hoping for extremely brief but very lucrative careers as landlords.

Becca Mix listed her one-bedroom apartment, in a building that was ''once the address of Joseph Kennedy Sr." on the 2004 DNC website for $3,800 during convention week. The tax lawyer is taking convention week off work anyway, ''just to get out of town, like most people," she said. But it looks as if her ''beautifully furnished" apartment, with the ''best location on the Hill," will be empty that week, while she is in Nantucket.

''If I had gotten the $3,800, I would have gone on a nicer trip," Mix said. ''Maybe Hawaii."

Jill Coppelman had a few nibbles on the one-bedroom condo her advertisement bills as being in a ''perfect Beacon Hill location . . . 10 minute walk to FleetCenter!" But they all came to nought.

''Basically, the majority of the calls were: 'I live in the same area, and I'm thinking of putting my condo up for rent. And have you had any interest?' " she said. ''Two or three were looking for one-year leases. One wanted parking for two chihuahas, and I wrote back and said, 'Good Luck.' "

She thought her place was just the ticket for the convention, she said. It is close to the State House, a short walk from the FleetCenter, and comes with a doorman. The $4,000 she was asking for the week would have helped pay for renovations, Coppelman said.

''At first, I felt optimistic," she said. ''Then it seemed like it might be more hype than anything else."

Hundreds of hopeful renters listed their homes on the website 2004DNC, at a cost of $185 per listing. The site was the object of controversy last summer, after convention officials grew angry at its owners for using convention logos without permission. The website now carries disclaimers pointing out that it has no official connection to the convention.

Several residents of 234 Causeway St., a new building right by the FleetCenter, listed their apartments on the community listings website Craigslist, asking for rents as high as $16,000. But building management put the kibosh on the budding entrepreneurs, citing a provision in the building regulations that prohibits tenants from renting their homes for less than six months.

But even in that neighborhood, delegates appear to be doing fine on their own.

''I was inundated with beautiful North End and Waterfront properties," said Carmela Laurella, manager of the Otis & Ahearn Real Estate Inc. office on the waterfront. ''But one of the reps from the convention told me . . . they felt they'd have more control over security" by using the hotels.

Because Kerry and many of his staff members are from Massachusetts, fewer accommodations were needed, Laurella said.

But waterfront residents are clearly keeping hope alive. Laurella is still fielding calls from residents hoping for a last-minute rush and a chance to score tenants with deep pockets.

Bob Airasian listed his one-bedroom Beacon Hill apartment on several Internet sites, spending nearly $400 to get the word out, he said.

He has had no luck renting the apartment, with its ''premier access to roofdeck with grill," for which he was asking $3,000 for convention week.

''It was done on a whim," he said. ''A lot of people just jumped on the bandwagon to see what happened, and nothing has come to fruition."