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Rent the country of Liechtenstein for $70,000 a night with Airbnb
- joejohnson 16y agoIt always strikes me how nice their website is. I really like the design and layout.
- joejohnson 16y agoLiechtenstein is 160 km². That's only $437.5 per square kilometer!
- hugh3 16y agoCompare 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!
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- gwern 16y agoApril 14th. Hm.
- furyg3 16y agoAhh 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.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/02/markoliver http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13iht-edstamm.4893796.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13iht-edstamm.4893...
- krolley 16y agoAs 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.
- JoachimSchipper 16y agoAirBNB sure knows how to pull a nice marketing stunt.
- daniel1980fl 16y agois it only me that "I dont get the idea"... (I was wrong many times before)
- JoachimSchipper 16y agoWhat 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.
- Groxx 16y agoI 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.
- klochner 16y agoIf 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.
- Groxx 16y ago"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.
- JonnieCache 16y agoAre legislative powers included?
- schintan 16y agoShould be, otherwise how would that be different from renting a room in Liechtenstein at $70 a night ?
- GrandMasterBirt 16y agoRich people need ways to show off. Probably get to sleep with the prince or something...?
- csomar 16y agoI 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.
- plnewman 16y agoFun fact: Liechenstein actually voted itself into an absolute monarchy in 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein_constitutional_referendum,_2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein_constitutional_re...
- tudorizer 16y agoWho's in with me? :D
- reso 16y agoI'll pitch $500! Just need 138 more...
- GrandMasterBirt 16y agoI'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!
- m0hit 16y agoNot 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.
- joe42 16y agoI was curious about how this would compare to large concert venues / stadiums / convention centers? Anybody know how much those cost, ballpark?
- tudorizer 16y agoI remembered correct that Snoop tried this before: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2010/07/snoop-dogg-tried-to-rent-liechtenstein/19406/ http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2010/07/snoop-d... This can mean that renting a stadium might be around the same price.
- nikcub 16y agoIf 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
- michaelochurch 16y ago13 days late, bro.
- cookiecaper 16y agocf. http://www.theonion.com/articles/wealthy-swiss-tourist-offers-us-government-87-bill,19436 http://www.theonion.com/articles/wealthy-swiss-tourist-offer...
- 1053r 16y agoIt 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!
- JonnieCache 16y agoIt's not people of Liechtenstein you'd be taxing, it's the many multinationals that send their profits there.
- kahawe 16y agoI would assume the number of those has rapidly been dropping since 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Liechtenstein_tax_affair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Liechtenstein_tax_affair
- visava 16y agocollect 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
- Splines 16y agoWarning: Minimum stay: 2 nights. And no indoor fireplace? Pfft. I'll pass.
- alexg0 16y agoDo they kick out all the 34,000 people that live that for the time? What do you actually get?
- prawn 16y agoI'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.
- takinola 16y agoIt'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.
- tectonic 16y agoIf those 500+ rooms are all included, that's only about $140 per night. Not free, but one hell of a (hacking) conference destination.
- edanm 16y agoLet'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!
- jacques_chester 16y agoIt's a "too good to check" story, I'm afraid: http://clubtroppo.com.au/2010/07/04/rent-a-state/ http://clubtroppo.com.au/2010/07/04/rent-a-state/ Or rather, "rent a country!" sounds sexier than "rent a few hotels!"
- svag 16y agoThe next thing would be to rent the moon, or mars, or any other planet...
- nikhilpandit 16y agoAnother 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-dogg-tried-to-rent-liechtenstein/19406/ http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2010/07/snoop-d...) He should try using AirBnB next time!
- delackner 16y agoSomehow 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.
- tudorizer 16y agoWouldn'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.
- presidentender 16y ago...Just how far does this rental extend? Can I declare war? 'Cuz this kid from high school still owes me $50.
- krmmalik 16y agoI wonder if Richard Branson will be listing his Necker Islands anytime soon ;-)
- lasonrisa 16y agoDouble the regular price and say that all proceeds would to his Virgin Unite charity. You might actually stand a chance.
- joubert 16y agoI 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.
- cosmicray 16y ago> 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.
- joubert 16y agoOne should set up a Kickstarter project to raise the $140k required (minimum stay is 2 nights). Participants can then be one's guests.
- jtnt 16y agoI'd rather rent San Marino (a country inside of Italy). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino