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An eye-catching new landmark of an architecturally changed community is now up for grabs after designer Tomas Osinski’s Invisible House hit the market in Joshua Tree, California, for $18 million. Image courtesy Aaron Kirman Group The mirror-clad 5,490-square-foot home was completed with the help... View full entry
California-based housing startup Samara has unveiled further details of their factory-produced studio and one-bedroom units. The company, led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and former Flex chief executive Mike McNamara, will now roll out a selection of customizable ADU units, collectively known... View full entry
Airbnb has named the 100 winners of its recently-launched OMG! Fund design contest celebrating the “craziest and most unique” buildings submitted to the short-term rental giant from more than 20 countries across the world. The contest awards $100,000 to each design as judged by a four-person... View full entry
Tulsa hosts a building that looks a lot like George and Jane Jetsons’ home in the cartoon, or perhaps a squat version of Seattle’s Space Needle – shaped like a wheel on its side perched on a stick.
The house recently hit the market, with an asking price of $415,000. But unfortunately for any time travelers, it has already been snapped up.
— The Guardian
The brainchild of local duo Joe Damer and Jeremy Perkins (who is a licensed architect) has only been on the market since the last week of June and was reportedly purchased by someone looking to convert the 17-year-old home into what promises to be one of Airbnb’s many unique short-term... View full entry
Airbnb is making a new $10 million investment in design with a new project called the OMG! Fund that will commission “100 of the craziest and most unique property ideas” in a design contest open to architects, designers, and the public across the globe. The contest’s brief’s sole... View full entry
The total number of short-term rentals of entire homes in the city’s five boroughs -- those listed on Airbnb Inc. and Expedia Group Inc.’s Vrbo -- is more than 13,000, according to third-party data tracker AirDNA. Meanwhile, rental inventory in Manhattan, Brooklyn and a portion of Queens hovers just over 7,500.
The vacancy rate in Manhattan sat at just over 1.5% last month, the second-lowest level on record, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.
— Bloomberg
Adding to the all-too-familiar notion that short-term rentals have the ability to destroy the livability of a place in its entirety, new data from Douglas Elliman and AirDNA making the rounds today indicate a record-setting shift in the dynamics of urban life as the number of hosted retreats in... View full entry
Tensions over visitors, some of whom will, inevitably, want to claim a piece of the desert themselves, has been a part of the area’s story for years. But as the pandemic has boosted Joshua Tree’s allure for travelers, transplants and investors, it has magnified old conflicts and created new conundrums. — The New York Times
Numbers of short-term rentals have doubled in Joshua Tree and the neighboring community of Yucca Valley, presenting an existential crisis to some of its inhabitants dismayed at the new boom in development to meet the demands of the market. Even the tree species that the town is named for is under... View full entry
Airbnb said this week it will offer free, short-term housing for up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion. The program will be backed by Airbnb.org, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and funded by donors and hosts. — The Real Deal
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced the move on Twitter, calling for people to offer their homes in nearby countries, including Poland, Germany, Hungary, and Romania. This comes as an estimated 660,000 refugees have so far fled Ukraine, with the U.N. refugee agency predicting that this figure could... View full entry
Two patrons of former Texas Tech University professor Robert Bruno’s famous Ransom Canyon are up in arms over the fate of one of American architectural history’s most significant self-built structures. Texas Monthly is reporting that plans for the corten steel creation have caused an outcry of... View full entry
Dutch construction technology start-up, Twente Additive Manufacturing (TAM), has announced that their Fibonacci House, Canada’s first 3D printed, concrete tiny home, is now the world’s first fully 3D printed home to be listed on Airbnb. Photo: Twente Additive ManufacturingThe design... View full entry
After Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 an Airbnb host reached out to the billion-dollar online vacation rental company to propose an idea. The host asked if she could offer her home to people who had been evacuated to stay free of charge. Since then the team from Airbnb has evolved the host's... View full entry
The last remaining Blockbuster video rental store in the world is now available for sleepovers. Hosted by Airbnb, residents of Deschutes County can book one of the three available nights at the storesleep over. According to The Oregonian, a household of up to four people will have free rein... View full entry
What will happen to home-sharing in the wake of coronavirus? It’s one of many questions about the fate of pre-pandemic sharing-economy juggernauts like Airbnb.
[...] with tourism on hold, national economies staggered, and public attitudes about shared space very much in question, the prospects for that industry are now murky.
— CityLab
Feargus O'Sullivan on the consequences of the short-term rental market's collapse, with particular focus on the industry's dominating player, Airbnb. In the aftermath of a worldwide wave of coronavirus-related booking cancellations, some apartments are reportedly returning to the local... View full entry
Airbnb has launched a $1 million fund to make the world's wildest home ideas a reality. Called the Unique Airbnb Fund, it is the company's first $1 million program aimed at finding and helping to finance "the most unconventional and unusual [livable] spaces on the planet." Big Idaho Potato... View full entry
In May of this year Airbnb conducted a competition allowing two winners the ability to spend a night at the iconic Louvre Museum in Paris. This "night at the museum" created quite a bit of buzz, however, not everyone was pleased with the museum's new attention and partnership with the billion... View full entry
