Fancy a night in a Ferrari leather bed? Airbnb could help with that

If you secretly dream of being a race car driver, you’ll soon be able to sign up for a chance to book a one-night stay at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello in Italy through Airbnb. If you manage to snag a spot, you’ll have the museum to yourself and sleep on a bed made from the same leather used to craft Ferrari seats.

Not a sports-car fan but like Marvel comics? You can train in the Danger Room at the 2D animated re-creation of the X-Mansion in Westchester, New York. Or how about a night in Milan at a gaming loft locked in a Fortnite Battle Royale with Khaby Lame, whose silent satire on how-to videos has made him the most-followed person on TikTok?

These aren’t the typical holiday rentals — an apartment in London or a three-bedroom on the beach — that generate the bulk of Airbnb’s annual revenue, which totalled about €9.34 billion last year. But as the pace of growth has slowed since the pandemic surge, and regulations seeking to crack down on listings have proliferated from New York to Barcelona, the company is seeking to gin up some excitement.

The limited edition stays are part of a new category of experiences on Airbnb called Icons which are designed to appeal to consumers who want to live out a dream or obsession.

The San Francisco-based company has offered unique lodging experiences in the past, such as the Barbie Malibu DreamHouse, which Airbnb opened last summer in partnership with Warner Brothers to mark the doll’s cinematic debut. But previously they were only bookable on the web version of Airbnb and often people didn’t know they were available until they were already reserved.

Now, listings such as Carl’s floating home from the Walt Disney and Pixar movie Up will be featured more prominently and launched at a more regular cadence under a new Icons tab within the Airbnb app, where the company gets more than half of its bookings.

Most of the Icon experiences are free and all of them will cost less than €100 per guest, according to the company. A countdown clock on the app will alert users when bookings open, similar to limited “drops” for designer trainers that are launched to generate buzz.

When the time comes, guests will be asked to explain why they want to reserve the booking. A shortlist will be created at random for further manual review by Airbnb, which will distribute a golden ticket to the most passionate fans. Airbnb plans to give out more than 4,000 tickets this year.

“It keeps the Airbnb brand top of mind,” says Dave Stephenson, the firm’s chief business officer. “It’s a marketing expense, but it's more than that. We're more than just a place to sleep. We are a place to be inspired. We're a place to connect.”

Earlier this year Stephenson was promoted from chief financial officer to the newly-created role in a sign of the company’s focus on new growth areas and international expansion.

Claudia Nayeli Ramírez Escobar, a 25-year-old engineer and Barbie fan from Mexico, booked one of the two stays at the real-life Barbie house last July. A lifelong fan who’s owned a couple of toy DreamHouses and had an electric Barbie jeep as a kid, she described her Malibu stay as a dream come true and one that made her more connected to the brands.

“You could get dressed with clothes and accessories from the Barbie closet,” she says. “Every detail was so cool, even the shampoo and towels were pink.”

Escobar adds that she and her mum, who she brought on the trip, were each given a swag bag filled with Barbie-inspired merchandise like lipstick, a mini vanity mirror, towels and roller skates. She says will definitely be on the lookout for other Airbnb experiences in the future.

Airbnb has long leveraged celebrities and brands to differentiate itself from the cookie-cutter nature of its hotel competitors. Since 2019, the company has struck partnerships with high-profile personalities to rent out their homes, and contracted with film and TV studios or venue operators to create at least two dozen exclusive stays that appeal to a broad, global demographic.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow listed her guesthouse in Montecito, California, inspired by her lifestyle brand Goop, for example. And DJ Khaled has offered up his sneaker closet - as big as a New York apartment - filled with exclusive Nike Jordans from floor to ceiling.

But what started out as a marketing gimmick to generate brand awareness in the lead-up to its 2020 public listing is now taking on a more central role in Airbnb’s strategy to reach new audiences at home and abroad.

For example, there is a stay offered in the family home of Bollywood celebrity Janhvi Kapoor, a weeklong trip on tour with the Colombian reggaeton artist Feid, and an overnight at the clock tower at the Musée d’Orsay to witness the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris.

Record bookings through the post-pandemic years have also led to mounting criticism, with guests complaining about exorbitant cleaning fees, strict house rules, long lists of chores imposed by hosts and a mismatch between photos and real life.

Housing activists say the proliferation of short-term rentals are partly to blame for rising housing costs in some cities. But perhaps the gripe that hits the hardest is that Airbnbs have become boring, with a homogenized Ikea-inspired aesthetic.

Chief executive officer Brian Chesky has spent much of the past year trying to repair the company’s reputation by improving the core platform to make pricing more transparent, and highlighting the most-liked listings so guests can have a more reliable stay.

He’s also signalled that the company he co-founded in 2007 is at an “inflection point,” and that he’s ready to “reinvent Airbnb” with new types of services and experiences for guests and hosts. Those will include a new type of marketplace on Airbnb later this year or next that will offer cleaning and maintenance services, airport rides, or even private chef or sommelier sessions, according to Stephenson.

As part of its annual summer update, Airbnb is introducing new features to make planning group trips easier to cater to the more than 80 per cent of its users who are group travellers. A new tool will allow guests to share their wishlists with others on their trip, and a more streamlined messaging tab will consolidate guest, host and customer support messages.

For hosts, Airbnb has expanded the earnings dashboard with performance charts and automated earnings reports. Chesky has also said he will share more details on the company’s use of artificial intelligence later this year.

For Airbnb, offering up these high-profile Icon experiences aren’t easy or cheap.

“But the return, which I'm excited about, is to get people to come directly to us to travel and hopefully do other things,” Stephenson says. “ I think it starts showing where we can go in the future of doing more than just accommodations.”

Bloomberg