Homeowner Seeks $3,500 for Three-Night Rental Ahead of Pope Leo's Visit
The visit carries particular weight in Argentina since the late Pope Francis never returned to his homeland during his 12-year papacy
Lucía Rodríguez never imagined strangers would pay to sleep in her modest three-bedroom home an hour west of Buenos Aires. Then Pope Leo XIV announced he was coming to Lujan, a Catholic pilgrimage site of about 95,000 people with just 1,800 hotel beds, now expecting a crowd more than 10 times its population.
The 20-year-old is asking for 5 million pesos ($3,500), to lease out her house to visitors during the papal visit. With luck, the three-night stay could bring in enough to paint the house, repair damp walls in the bedrooms and finish an unfinished covered patio out back.
“This opportunity — having the Pope come and people from all over the world — I don’t think it will happen again,” said Rodríguez. “It would help us enormously with a lot of things we need.”
She is hardly alone.
Lujan is preparing for more than 1 million visitors when Leo celebrates Mass there on November 11 and Mayor Leonardo Boto has encouraged residents to offer spare bedrooms, gardens, soccer fields and community halls to house them.
The once-in-a-generation chance to charge sky-high rents comes as Argentina’s economy slows and formal jobs disappear, leaving many households struggling to make ends meet. In Lujan, the scramble has created an awkward tension between Milei’s free-market Argentina and the Catholic ideals of hospitality surrounding the Pope’s visit, with some residents asking as much as $10,000 to welcome the faithful.
The visit carries particular weight in Argentina since the late Pope Francis never returned to his homeland during his 12-year papacy.