"Airbnb Experiences" to Include New Feature: "Airbnb SEXperiences!"
In a way, it was inevitable.
In 2008, Airbnb.com started allowing hosts to rent out rooms, apartments, and houses to visitors. In 2016, the company introduced the “Experiences” feature on their website and app, allowing hosts to offer local tours and specialized events, in addition to places to stay.
Later this year, Airbnb will introduce a new Experiences-like feature: Airbnb SEXperiences!, which will allow hosts to offer sex-related, “adults-only” experiences.
At a press conference in London yesterday, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky explained that these SEXperiences! would include offerings such as lodgings specifically decked out for sex play; admissions to local orgies and erotic events; and even — in countries where it’s legal — paid sexual activity between hosts and their guests.
And in a move that shocked some observers, some of these SEXperiences! will be recorded or broadcast live on OnlyFans.com — a video content subscription service that was originally built for musicians but that is now primarily used by sex workers creating and posting amateur pornography.
But Chesky was quick to point out that broadcasts on OnlyFans.com will only happen with the informed consent of the guests, and — in an arrangement that he called “revolutionary” — the revenue for these live sex shows will be split equally between the host and the guest.
“Airbnb will soon be the first lodging experience in history that can actually make money for the guests,” Chesky said at yesterday’s press conference. “A guest will be able to check into an Airbnb unit on a Friday, participate in a great and satisfying SEXperience!, and then check out again the following Monday with more money in their checking account than they had the previous Friday.”
Industry observers were surprised by the boldness of Airbnb’s latest feature, which comes at a time of increased government scrutiny for social media companies, and also cultural pushback for companies taking more extreme political stands.
But Eleanor Booker of the website TechSmartie.com suggested this brand-shift wasn’t as extreme as some people were making it out to be.
“Hidden fees? Terrible customer service?” she said. “Airbnb users are already very used to getting screwed.”
Others suggested that Airbnb will run into the same problem that all dating apps have: hosts using camera filters or outdated or inaccurate photos.
But Chesky spoke to these concerns at the press conference. “Since 2019, every single Airbnb unit around the world has been ‘verified’ by the company for accuracy,” he explained. “We are now currently in the process of verifying all SEXperience! hosts for attractiveness and sexual skill. In fact, I’ve already personally ‘verified’ more than three dozen hosts myself.”
And yes, when he used the word “verified” at the press conference, Chesky made “air-quotes” with his fingers.
“And, of course,” Chesky went on, “guests will have the opportunity to rate our SEXperience! hosts. Although everyone knows that anything less than five stars is a ‘bad’ review, and we don’t want to hurt the hosts’ feeling, so you’ll only have the option of rating five stars.”
Others objected to SEXperiences! on moral grounds.
“How is this not flat-out prostitution?” said Wilbert Jaír of the conservative activist group, Grumbling Republicans Urging Moral Purity, or GRUMP. “But I’m not surprised. Sex is everywhere online these days — even mainstream, previously inoffensive travel newsletters!
“I’d be really upset,” he continued, “if today wasn’t April first, and this entire article wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke.”
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Brent Hartinger is a screenwriter and author. Check out my new newsletter about my books and movies at www.BrentHartinger.com.
You might think this idea is an April Fools' prank, but I just registered an LLC in Malta.
Good one! It took me 2/3rds of the way through the article to realize it was a spoof. Particularly love the line about AirBNB users already used to getting screwed!