SYRACUSE, NEW YORK (NCC News)— The popular homestay booking website, Airbnb, recently released their top holiday destinations in each state. While many may think that New York City, the Adirondacks or Catskills would top the list for New York State, it’s actually the city of Syracuse.
This ranking caught many by surprise, but not local property owner Darya Rotblat. She believes that the city’s high ranking can be attributed to its central location.
“What I see more for people coming for the holidays is people utilizing Airbnbs to bring family together,” Rotblat said. “So sometimes Syracuse is seen as a central location from those maybe coming from Buffalo, New York City, Syracuse is in the middle.”
Lowell Weeks, another Syracuse resident who rents out houses in the area, said that the main reason people are attracted to the Central New York area isn’t because of typical tourist attractions.
“A lot of people have family here, and they live out of town,” said Weeks. “They come for weddings, they come for funerals, they come for medical procedures, because we do have really good medical facilities here.”
Syracuse University and Le Moyne College may also play a role in the city’s holiday popularity as other college towns such as Pennsylvania State College, Gainesville in Florida, and Ann Arbor, Michigan topped their state’s rankings as well.
Airbnb came to its conclusion that Syracuse is New York’s trendiest holiday destination by comparing the growth in searches for November and December to the rest of the year.