There are days when travel feels like a whisper—familiar neighborhoods, a loved café, the sound of a city breathing in and out, quietly. But then, there are those rare journeys that thunder through your soul, where you stand at the crossroads of wonder and discovery, your senses ablaze. Airbnb’s new venture, ‘Originals’, is striving to ignite just that: to conjure the kind of travel moments that echo for a lifetime.
Redefining What It Means to Experience a Place
I remember a blustery night in Lisbon, the lamps flickering gold onto cobblestone, when a local chef welcomed me at his hidden supper club. It wasn’t just dinner—it was whispers of generations past, present laughter, and the thrill of stepping into an unknown circle. That’s the electricity Airbnb seems to have captured in Originals: not just places to lay your head, but moments to live larger—curated, deeply human stories written right into the journey.
“With Originals, travel becomes theatre—each booking is an act, and you, the traveler, step into the brightest spot of the stage.”
Award-Winning, Imaginative Stays
Picture waking up in a real-life Barbie Dreamhouse, curling through an Art Deco spiral in a mansion designed by contemporary artists, or sleeping under the glass arch of a railway car nestled in the Rockies. Originals brings together a league of creative minds—designers, filmmakers, conservationists, culinary magicians—to craft stays brimming with soul and surprise. Every listing is not just curated, but threaded together by a narrative, an invitation to be whisked away from the ordinary.
- A night spent in a treehouse, suspended above mist-laden old growth forests.
- Cooking paella at sunset in a restored Andalusian lighthouse—only for those on the originals list.
- Stargazing from a transparent pod rolled out to the desert of Wadi Rum.
Personal Touches That Change the Game
Unlike the algorithmic churn of hotel bookings, an Originals reservation is a love letter to the concept of ‘unique’. You’re paired with passionate hosts—storytellers, dreamers, often the visionaries who created the spaces themselves. They offer not just keys, but keys to a culture: access to neighborhood celebrations, secret local hikes, family recipes. The effect? Connection. Intimate moments that leave you changed, somehow, for having lived them.
My recent escape into a Provençal vineyard, arranged through Originals, turned into an unexpected masterclass in French gastronomy. The host, a fourth-generation vintner, shared sun-drenched afternoons walking among the rows, tasting grape varietals straight from the vine—a sense of belonging so vivid, it felt stitched into my bones.
The Magic of Curation in a Crowded World
In a time when choice can overwhelm, curation is golden. Originals distills the sprawling map of possibility, cutting through tourist traps and commodified sameness to present a handpicked portfolio of the extraordinary. As a traveler, I no longer need to hunt endlessly for authenticity; it waits, dazzling, just a booking away.
“To be curated is to be cherished: each experience carries the promise that someone, somewhere, dreamed you’d find joy there.”
Why This Is a Turning Point for Travel
The travel landscape is ripe for reinvention. After years of craving meaning in the wake of global pause, wanderers want stories, not souvenirs; transformation, not transactions. Airbnb’s Originals champions this shift—a move from passive consumption of place to visceral participation in local life.
With each Original experience, I feel closer to what drew me to the road in the first place: a sense of wonder, the dazzling unpredictability of genuine encounters, the beauty of communities welcoming you as one of their own. It’s a reminder that, in the hands of good storytellers and bold dreamers, even the world’s well-trodden paths can become wild and new again.
