Would you ditch the Courtyard Marriot in order to sleep inside a giant flower pot? What about a nuclear missile bunker, a giant triceratops skull, or a pig sleeping under a quilt of grass and flowers?
These are just some of the ideas that came out of the $10 million OMG! Fund from AirBnB, a contest to find the craziest, most out of the world and innovative designs for unorthodox vacation rentals imaginable.
From a pool of more than 10,000 submissions, 100 super creative builders and designers will receive $100,000 to bring their vision to live.
After the contest was announced in June, the contest was flooded with entries, each more crazy than the last, but recurring motifs did begin to reveal themselves.
AirBnB’s data shows that more than 400 listings involved stargazing, 680 concepts were wine-inspired, almost 8,000 included solar panels, nearly 1,000 involved music in some way, and 1,500 included either a treehouse, or suspended structure.
In Mexico, Diego A. designed a livable giant snail fossil, while Haylee M. in the USA designed an adobe-clay hut shaped like a triceratops skull, with guests beckoned to enter through its beaked, gaping mouth.
Another Mexican entrant came up with the design for a series of ten, interlinked room pods on stilts arranged in constellation of Orion, and Whitney H. designed a giant terracotta flower pot surrounded by beautiful blooms.
For music fans, a yellow submarine surrounded by tranquil woods, or the prism from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon becomes a comfortable room, the latter welcoming guests up a rainbow spectra ramp.
“What an incredible journey it has been to be a part of the OMG! Fund judging process. There were so many inspiring stories and destinations that I had never heard of before that I’m now eager to visit,” said Kristie Wolfe, who herself previously won the contest by building a giant potato in Idaho.
“As a builder myself, I can’t wait to watch these ideas come to life. These are more than just places to spend the night—each one offers an entire experience!”
AirBnB saw 30,000 unique rentals enter their listings in 2021, and their data suggests that properties like yurts, treehouses, castles, and other such places tend to receive very high revenues, saying that globally, the median earnings for an OMG! Category Host active between January 2018 and May 2022 was just over $48,000.
As part of the contest, the winners will try to have the property rental-ready by summer of 2023.