WASHINGTON DC residents have never been so popular, as long-forgotten friends, estranged relatives and distant acquaintances call just to say hello - and to ask for a bed for a night more than two months from now.
The city's hotels are already booked out for January 20th, when Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, and many visitors will be staying up to 80km (50 miles) away.
Some 250,000 tickets to the inauguration have been printed but they will not be distributed until about a week before the event. This has not stopped internet touts from asking for tens of thousands of dollars for tickets, which are supposed to be distributed free by congressmen and other officials.
California senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs Mr Obama's inauguration committee, plans to introduce a Bill this month that would make reselling the tickets a misdemeanour. She has suggested that people think carefully before travelling to Washington, warning that the city could be "very cold" on inauguration day.
More than 90 per cent of Washingtonians voted for Mr Obama. The District of Columbia's congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, has urged the president-elect's staff to add inauguration events away from the National Mall to give more people a chance to join the celebrations.
Tickets are not actually necessary for the swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the Capitol or for the parade along Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues, although ticket holders will have a better view.
The well-heeled are preparing to shell out hundreds of dollars for tickets to numerous inauguration balls across the city and some Washington hotels are offering special packages for extravagant visitors.
At the Georgetown Ritz, $99,000 (€79,000) will get a round-trip first-class airfare for two; an on-call chauffeur; Gucci luggage; two parade tickets; two tickets to an inauguration ball; and a private dinner.
After the stay in Washington, guests will fly to the Ritz Grand Cayman to recover from all the excitement.