Fund for the world’s craziest listing ideas

CHENNAI: Airbnb is on the hunt for the world’s craziest spaces - and will help foot the bill to build them.

Whether it’s the next boot, UFO house or a 6-ton potato, the first-of-its-size $10,000,000 OMG! Fund is seeking ideas from existing and aspiring designers, architects, DIYers and makers from around the globe.

The fund’s $10 million will help finance 100 of the craziest ideas, giving 100 people an opportunity to turn them into actual Airbnb OMG! Category listings, which are Airbnb’s collection of the most unique homes.

One hundred people with the craziest ideas will receive $100,000 each to make their creations possible and, ultimately, bookable. Ideas will be judged by an expert panel for their originality, feasibility, the experience the space will provide guests, and sustainability.

The fund is shaped in part by the growing trend of flexible living that has emerged in the past two years.

As part of this shift, Airbnb guests are craving more unexpected spaces that become the destinations themselves, and Airbnb Categories, which launched last month, provide a new way to search for these spaces.

More than 30,000 unique listings across the world were added to the platform in 2021 and the OMG! Category - which since introduced has been viewed 2.5M times - showcases the craziest amongst them, making it easy for guests to discover these listings in places they wouldn’t have otherwise looked.

Hosting on the platform provides powerful economic benefits to hosts and their communities. In 2021, unique hosts income in India increased by around 45 percent as compared to 2019.

Additionally, nights booked at unique properties increased globally by over 49 percent from 2019 to 2021.

“When the Idaho Potato Commission retired a six-ton prop potato, I took it off their hands and spent $32,000 transforming it into an Airbnb,” Airbnb Superhost and OMG! Fund judging panelist Kristie Wolfe said.

“I went from making $13/hr to seeing $208,000 in earnings in less than three years, and leveraged that income to bootstrap my way through additional listings that allow me to express my creativity and connect with hundreds of people in the process.”

Applications will be reviewed by a judging panel of boundary-pushing design authorities, an architectural expert, and an Airbnb OMG! Category Superhost- Iris Apfel, incomparable and irreverent centenarian style icon, Koichi Takada, founder of Sydney-based international studio Koichi Takada Architects, Kristie Wolfe, Airbnb Superhost among others.

The $10,000,000 OMG! Fund opens today for a period of 30 days, through July 22 at 11:59 pm ET.

The 100 fund recipients will be selected by the panel over the next several months, with the intent of having their newly-constructed spaces complete next year.