Rent the country of Liechtenstein for $70,000 a night with Airbnb | Hacker News Reader

Rent the country of Liechtenstein for $70,000 a night with Airbnb

blog.airbnb.com

193 pointsjamesjyu60 comments

Ahh Liechtenstein. Random trivia: the Swiss once invaded the country by accident and nobody noticed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/02/markoliver http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13iht-edstamm.4893...

As a foreigner living in Switzerland, it can feel the same. Driving with a Swiss it's like "are we in Liechtenstein yet?" because you'd never know it otherwise.

Fun fact: Liechenstein actually voted itself into an absolute monarchy in 2003.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein_constitutional_re...

So when Alexander Lukashenko is described as the "last dictator in Europe", they're forgetting Hans-Adam II.

He's lovingly pronounced Han-Saddam by the locals.

It must not come with legislative powers, because at $70K per night, that's only $25.55M a year. The GDP of Lichtenstein is 5.05B according to a quick google search (google for "lichetenstein gdp" and you get a result from google public data sources). I'll pay $25.55M for the right to tax the people of Lichtenstein for one year! Even if I only raise taxes 1%, that's a cool $25M profit!

It's not people of Liechtenstein you'd be taxing, it's the many multinationals that send their profits there.

I would assume the number of those has rapidly been dropping since 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Liechtenstein_tax_affair

I can see lot of potential for this.

1. The buyer. He benefits from a unique and authentic experience. He amazes his audience because he doesn't just rent a hotel or a room, but a whole location and customize it to fit.

2. The seller. $70K/day, if they get booked 50 times a year that's $3.5 million. The country habitants benefits too from the incoming tourists and currency.

3. AirBnb. It's like having 1,000 clients in one time.

AirBNB sure knows how to pull a nice marketing stunt.

is it only me that "I dont get the idea"... (I was wrong many times before)

What exactly is your question? I admit I can't imagine spending $70k/night on entertaining my guests, but Googling for "airbnb liechtenstein" or variations shows that this has already got them a good amount of press, including e.g. TechCrunch. If they're lucky, and good, they may even get mentioned in the trivia section of a big newspaper.

I doubt you're their target market for renting a country. If you can drop 70k for a night without breaking a sweat, feel free to tell me I'm wrong.

Given this is a partnership with Xnet, and:

>Rent a Village by Xnet partners with these destinations to transform them into highly customized settings for events, corporate retreats, conferences, and more.

I imagine this is more about "events" than a single person renting a country so they can sleep in it for the night. But that, too, is a possibility, if they wanted to just so they could say they did.

If you can drop $70k/night, do you really need airBnB to secure an island for a week?

Definitely more marketing stunt than anything, but also definitely brilliant.

"An island", not really (usually). "A village" or "an entire country", that's a bit harder - people live there. The location's purpose isn't entirely to be rented. Tourism, absolutely, but not temporary ownership.

So I wonder what happens if someone had a trip booked and someone else decided to rent out the village for that day?

Presumably they could be denied access to any public or private venue.

Hmmm... that's a good question...

Personally, I hope the village-renters have to agree that any current tourists retain access to any normally-public venues. Private is debatable.

Let's get an HN super-meetup going. If everybody pitches in $100 it won't take too many members to rent out Liechtenstein for an all-HN users weekend!

I call dibs on controlling that army

You can't control chaos.

It's a "too good to check" story, I'm afraid:

http://clubtroppo.com.au/2010/07/04/rent-a-state/

Or rather, "rent a country!" sounds sexier than "rent a few hotels!"

Somehow this feels like the uncanny valley of human reality. Along the lines of renting a family for the afternoon, or a puppy for a walk, only on a massive scale.

I once had a dream that I was the king of the city, and they marched in parade to honor my name. No wait, that was last weekend in Leichtenstein at SuperBlingFest2012.

Liechtenstein is 160 km². That's only $437.5 per square kilometer!

Compare to your average room at your average Holiday Inn Express, which is 25 square metres and rents for $100 a night. That's four million dollars per square km. Liechtenstein is a bargain!

Do they kick out all the 34,000 people that live that for the time? What do you actually get?

I'd guess: a parade, meeting the mayor, key to city/country, some dedicated accommodation, organisational support in running a major event, etc. Think of it more as a novel way to host a massive launch event or corporate end-of-year party than actually running the country for a day.

Are legislative powers included?

Should be, otherwise how would that be different from renting a room in Liechtenstein at $70 a night ?

Rich people need ways to show off. Probably get to sleep with the prince or something...?

Another fun fact related to this story: Snoop Dogg tried to rent Liechtenstein in the past, but was not able to. (source: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2010/07/snoop-d...)

He should try using AirBnB next time!

Warning: Minimum stay: 2 nights.

And no indoor fireplace? Pfft. I'll pass.

collect 700 people using groupon like site and then it is just $100/night.This is an idea for a site if there are more deals like this

At that point, you may as well stay in a 700-suite hotel for your $100.

You might as well? Isn't that at least two orders of magnitude less awesome?

Who's in with me? :D

I'll pitch $500! Just need 138 more...

I'm in. Now we better be getting our money's worth! Now that I think about it. 1 day for a country for 70k is fine. Means we can throw one fucking helluva party!

Not absolutely sure what the fine print is, but $70,000 is a bargain for such a huge cOncert venue. invite all your favorite bands to play in towns named after then and streets named after the songs.

I was curious about how this would compare to large concert venues / stadiums / convention centers?

Anybody know how much those cost, ballpark?

I remembered correct that Snoop tried this before:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2010/07/snoop-d...

This can mean that renting a stadium might be around the same price.

If it includes controlling the army and police, i'm in

it is a hell of a party when you have your own army running beer runs to Germany for you

It wont because I believe both of those are rented from Switzerland. I know border patrol is for certain.

I'm in for $500! 137 more...

(this would be cool, but also hell to arrange haha)

Better be for a full 24 hours - none of this 11AM checkout crap.

I'm in for 500$, Liechtenstein is just around the corner for me.

Wouldn't it be cool to rent this in the name of Hacker News for 2-3 days? With 150 people, it's not that expensive.

It always strikes me how nice their website is. I really like the design and layout.

It's actually a pretty good deal. The country sleeps 500 so that comes to about $140 per night. This is comparable to rates on Kayak for the cheapest 4 star hotels in nearby Zurich.

I clicked on "Book Now".

Next I was prompted to contact the "host" to confirm availability (does this mean they kick out the citizens?)

Oh, and BTW, minimum stay is 2 nights, so this will cost me $140,000.

> does this mean they kick out the citizens?

It means that the citizens will now try to book a group-rate 2-day stay on Ibiza, then return to clean things up before the next renter arrives.

I'd rather rent San Marino (a country inside of Italy). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino

If those 500+ rooms are all included, that's only about $140 per night. Not free, but one hell of a (hacking) conference destination.

One should set up a Kickstarter project to raise the $140k required (minimum stay is 2 nights).

Participants can then be one's guests.

I wonder if Richard Branson will be listing his Necker Islands anytime soon ;-)

Double the regular price and say that all proceeds would to his Virgin Unite charity. You might actually stand a chance.

cf. http://www.theonion.com/articles/wealthy-swiss-tourist-offer...

The next thing would be to rent the moon, or mars, or any other planet...

13 days late, bro.

...Just how far does this rental extend? Can I declare war? 'Cuz this kid from high school still owes me $50.

April 14th. Hm.

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