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Are Airbnb Icons Transforming the Platform and Hospitality?
Airbnb launched a new feature called Airbnb Icons in 2024, and it quickly generated a lot of buzz. It wasn’t just another update. It felt like a bold new move and veering toward the entertainment industry. Airbnb has always been known for its unique travel experiences, but with Icons, it has taken things to a whole new level. We're talking about stays as wild as sleeping in a house suspended in the air by a crane.
So, what’s the idea behind Airbnb Icons? Is it about creating a Disneyland-type of housing to offer a new kind of travel experience? And how are these experiences changing the game for guests and Airbnb hosts?
What are Airbnb Icons?
Icons is a feature based on pop culture–themed stays inspired by movies, TV shows, and iconic moments in entertainment and history. These extraordinary experiences are hosted personally by celebrities like Doja Cat and Kevin Hart or recreations of iconic cultural moments.
What makes the Icons category truly stand out is its exclusivity—availability is limited, even though anyone can book. The idea behind these stays is to create emotional and transformative experiences by allowing guests to step into imaginative, yet familiar worlds.
"As life becomes increasingly digital, we're focused on bringing more magic into the real world. With Icons, we've created the most extraordinary experiences on Earth.” Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO.
New Icon listings are being added continuously, month after month, while some will eventually become unavailable. The sense of scarcity, combined with the lottery application process (where you need to tell a story why you should be selected over others and you are selected as one of the winners), adds to the excitement and demand for these one-of-a-kind experiences.
Pop Culture Comes to Life with Unique Stays
Taylor Swift’s tours have had a massive impact not just on music and culture, but also on travel and hospitality. Her concerts have become destination events, with fans traveling from all over the world to attend. This surge in fan tourism has boosted local economies and driven up demand for accommodations in cities hosting her shows.
Airbnb took notice. The company saw how powerful fan experiences can be in motivating travel, and this helped shape Airbnb Icons, their new category of unique, immersive stays and experiences tied to pop culture, film, and music.
One of the first Icons was created when Airbnb transformed the world's last operating Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon, into a unique overnight experience. In August 2020, the store's manager, Sandi Harding, listed the venue on Airbnb, offering local residents a 1990s-themed sleepover.
The interior was set up with a living room featuring a pull-out couch, bean bags, and shelves stocked with VHS tapes, allowing guests to relive the classic movie rental experience. The Blockbuster store was launched in 2024 as a part of Icons.
In 2024, Airbnb went live with this feature. More than 10 new Icons were offered, and they kept adding new ones.
World's Greatest Icons On Airbnb
These are some of the world's greatest icons:
Barbie house
Barbie's Malibu DreamHouse was set up for the film's upcoming release. The film became a worldwide hit, and Airbnb piggybacked on its popularity, but it fitted perfectly into Airbnb's idea about this new category. The design reflects the famous Barbie style, with pink as the dominant color, and it looks like a Barbie doll house come to life.
Prince's Purple Rain house
This Minneapolis house in the Longfellow neighborhood has been transformed into a Purple Rain house, a tribute to Prince. Guests can explore authentic artifacts, including Prince's personal tape collection with an original demo, his iconic outfits, and an exclusive studio session. The space embraces '80s nostalgia with purple velvet wallpaper, vintage furnishings, a retro tape machine, disco balls, and leopard prints.
Up house
Recreation of one of Disney and Pixar’s most iconic homes, lifted up in the air, decorated with more than 8,000 balloons. This Airbnb "Up" house in New Mexico is lifted off the ground using a crane to simulate the floating effect from the movie.
Go VIP with Kevin Hart
Kevin Hart's Coramino Live Lounge offers guests exclusive access to the comedian's private house in Los Angeles. Visitors enjoy a personal tequila tasting experience with Hart and award-winning bartender Chai Lee, featuring Gran Coramino's signature cocktails and appetizers. The evening includes entertainment from a live DJ, special performances, and professional photography to capture the VIP experience.
Living Room session with Doja Cat
Doja Cat's West Hollywood experience invites guests into her personally curated space featuring her grandmother's artwork and a luxury feast of her favorite foods. Visitors engage and enjoy an intimate private performance. This rare glimpse into the artist's world combines visual art, cuisine, and music in a one-time experience Doja designed specifically for fans.
Beetlejuice house
Delia Deetz offers a macabre art evening in her New Jersey home. Guests view her avant-garde collection, explore the attic's Maitland model, and participate in a fear-inspired painting workshop. The theatrical experience includes supernatural references and culminates with creating and then destroying an artwork.
Ferrari museum
This exclusive Ferrari experience offers VIP access to a premier race in the Emilia-Romagna region, in Italy, dinner at Enzo Ferrari’s favorite restaurant, and a private tour of the Ferrari Museum. It includes an overnight stay in a museum surrounded by historic trophies and legendary cars, and ends with a thrilling ride on the Fiorano track alongside a professional Ferrari driver.
Gladiator in Coloseum
This experience lets guests step into the role of a gladiator inside Rome’s Colosseum at night. It includes a guided tour through the underground chambers, trying on gladiator armor, watching a live sword fight, light training, and a small Roman-style meal.
Can You Actually Stay at Airbnb Icons?
Anyone can apply for these stays if they live in an eligible country. It's enough to click on the Icons feature on the Airbnb interface and check out availability. But places are sold out fast due to limited availability and huge interest. Guests are picked randomly, and for a final phase of selection, the team reviews their answers on why they want to participate in the experience for the final decision.
How Much Does This Experience Cost?
If selected, the guest will receive a digital golden ticket via email and will have 24 hours to complete the booking. Currently, Icons are either free or priced very low, under $100 per guest. Since icons are part of promotional activities with the goal of reinforcing the brand, the price is symbolic.
Marketing To Gen Z
Icons is a project targeted at Gen Z as its core growth demographic. This doesn't come as a surprise, as Airbnb grew in popularity among young people back in the 2010s. Launching this feature is a strategic move to keep the company relevant to a new generation.
Dave Stephenson, Airbnb’s Chief Business Officer, told Forbes that Airbnb wants to be culturally relevant through influencer partnerships. "We worked with stars like Doja Cat and Kevin Hart and even launched the Barbie Dream House as part of our marketing campaigns". And he added: These icons resonate with Gen Z, making Airbnb not just a travel brand but a cultural player."
How Airbnb Icons fit into the Airbnb Brand
Airbnb has always built its brand around creating memorable experiences by inviting guests to stay in other people's homes and explore their worlds. Guests are already booking unique and themed accommodations through Airbnb. The company launched and relaunched its Experiences feature as part of its brand. Experiences focus on immersing guests in local culture through events, tours, and activities.
With Icons, Airbnb reinforces its position as the leader in offering unique, diverse, and entertaining travel experiences, making it clear that it's more than just a booking platform. Instead of positioning itself as an alternative accommodation provider, Airbnb is focused on introducing guests to innovative and exciting ways to experience travel. The company's CEO and Airbnb co founder, Brian Chesky, announced plans to expand the Airbnb brand into new verticals and categories beyond housing in the coming years.
Which Branding Elements Define These Extraordinary Experiences?
There are a few key components here.
Celebrity and Cultural Partnerships
Introducing celebrities as hosts, such as Doja Cat, Kevin Hart, or Bollywood actress Janhvi Kapoor, is a major novelty in this project. TikTok sensation Khaby Lame hosts guests for an overnight gaming experience in Milan, Italy. Another experience is joining reggaeton superstar Feid on his Ferxxocalipsis world tour for an entire week in a custom-designed tour bus. Celebrities and influencers help pave the way for a younger audience.
Limited Access and Exclusivity
Pricing isn't the strategy to make this project exclusive - it's the limited availability. Actually, the emphasis is on making these stays free or highly affordable. However, the limited access and random selection process make these extraordinary experiences hosted by celebrities or in collaboration with museums and other organizations truly exclusive.
Immersive Experiences
Combining storytelling, fandom, and design takes you inside worlds you could only imagine or see on screen. When the world is becoming increasingly digital, taking worlds that existed in your imagination and bringing them to reality provides a tactile experience that can't be replicated virtually. These unique stays offer physical, sensory interactions - from touching movie props, feeling the texture of custom-designed spaces to chatting with your celebrity host - creating memories that engage all the senses.
One-of-a-Kind Design Tied to Pop Culture
The X-Mansion Icon perfectly demonstrates Airbnb's one-of-a-kind design philosophy. This meticulously crafted recreation of the famous X-Men headquarters shows extraordinary attention to aesthetic and atmosphere, with designers collaborating with Marvel to transform a property into Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
How Will Icons Impact Travelers and Airbnb Hosts?
For the platform, introducing Icons reinforces Airbnb's brand beyond accommodations. They generate media buzz, drive engagement by creating virality, and convert more people into regular users, keeping Airbnb top of mind.
How will these features impact travelers and hosts on the platform?
Impact on Travelers and Travel Industry
The way people travel and experience new places is changing. Icons bring a sense of wonder and novelty, offering opportunities to engage with pop culture in a tangible way. Just as Walt Disney created Disneyland, Airbnb is moving in a direction where entertainment and other types of experiences play a role in housing and travel.
For platform users, this feature sets a new standard of what is possible in terms of travel experiences and guest expectations.
Impact on Hosts
This feature isn't directly competing with hosts. However, it reminds hosts and Airbnb property owners of the essence of the Airbnb brand: inviting guests into your personal world. Airbnb icons could raise the bar for creativity and quality of listings, as plain, ordinary listings are sometimes not enough to stand out.
Consider all the ways you can showcase your preferred style and implement it into the decor and setup of your listing. Treat this Airbnb feature as inspiration for possible themed listings.
How Icons Compare with Other Airbnb Features
When you search on Airbnb, Icons are one of the categories that show up, together with treehouses, countryside, luxe, island, camping, and many other categories. Regular listings are the heart of Airbnb and always will be, Icons are more like a spotlight moment. They’re exclusive, limited-time stays that come with immersive, themed experiences, usually tied to pop culture or creative collaborations.
Unlike other categories, which help guests explore great listings like “Treehouses” or “Castles that can be booked anytime,” Icons are more like events, or uniquely designed one-offs.
The Experiences category, on the other hand, offers separate activities. Icons bundle the stay and the experience into one package. They also differ from Luxe, which is all about luxury, while Icons focus on creating emotional, unforgettable moments.
FAQ
Are People Stopping Using Airbnb?
People aren’t quitting Airbnb as the number of booked nights keeps growing year after year. Usage has only dipped in a few big cities that have imposed bans or restrictions on short-term rentals.
Is Airbnb Icons AI?
No, ‘Icons’ is not an AI-powered feature. They are specially designed, real-world stays. Although some experiences may involve the use of tech or storytelling elements, they’re definitely not AI-generated.
A note for Airbnb Hosts: As guest experience becomes a top priority on the platform, which Airbnb is clearly signaling with this new feature, it’s good to know that automation with iGMS can help you keep guests happy and your calendar full.
