Here Are the Airbnbs Where Celebs Have Stayed

Bold-faced names, from Mariah Carey to President Obama, have stayed at properties listed on Airbnb. Here's the inside scoop on the site's increasingly luxurious listings. Brace yourself for the pictures.
By Mia Taylor ,

When celebrities get tired of staying in hotels and want to escape the confinement that often accompanies such accommodations, where do they go?

The answer that's popping up with increasing frequency these days may come as a bit of a surprise. It's Airbnb.

Case in point - Mariah Carey.

Twice in recent months, the all-luxury, all-the-time diva has chosen to spend time unwinding in deluxe Airbnb accommodations after being holed up in hotels in Las Vegas while giving concerts there.

Joe Manganiello is another example. Known to many as Sophia Vergara's fiancé, and one of the beefcake actors in the film Magic Mike, he too was a recent Airbnb guest at an ultra luxurious property in Oahu.

Even President Barack Obama, the most powerful man in the free world, has stayed at a property that's listed on Airbnb.

The fact that celebrities and the fabulously wealthy are flocking to the home sharing and rental platform, which initially established itself as an inexpensive alternative to hotels (with its founders famously offering stays on an air mattress in their San Francisco apartments), might seem puzzling to some.

But for Jonathan Mildenhall, the company's chief marketing officer, it makes perfect sense.

"The truth is that there is a property for every mindset and every budget on Airbnb," said Mildenhall, while recently jetting from San Francisco to Hawaii on a trip designed to unveil Airbnb's newly inked high-profile partnership with Virgin Airlines. "And those property types include things like castles, yurts, windmills, tree houses and hundreds of thousands of villas. And over time, you will continue to see Airbnb offerings grow as diverse as humanity itself." 

The fact is Airbnb is a company in the midst of major growth and evolution in many ways. It's an exciting time for the once fledgling start-up run primarily by twenty and thirty-somethings. The addition of countless luxury properties on the site is just one bit of evidence marking the Airbnb's dynamic growth.

The site now lists a staggering 2 million properties and 60 million guests have been hosted in Airbnb properties since 2008, (25 million just during the past year alone.)

"We're only an eight-year-old company, and one that genuinely started as a result of two founders renting airbeds in a downtown San Francisco apartment," Mildenhall continued. "That led to a very early adopter mindset that was very young and very budget conscious. But as Airbnb started to become better known, Baby Boomers started to book bigger properties on the platform. And as a result of that, Baby Boomers began putting property on the platform, and so it became less about just being budget conscious."

So while you can still find the inexpensive accommodations the site is known for, you can also find homes in an expanding number of other categories such as business travel, urban travel, luxury travel and Mildenhall says the company also aggressively leaned into vacation rentals earlier this year.

Among the notable luxury properties on the site these days are Emily Blunt's former Hollywood Hills home (a 3,000-square-foot, six-bedroom gated estate renting for just $495 per night) and Paul Mitchell's sprawling Oahu compound.



Mitchell's lavish 1.3-acre beachfront retreat recently played host to a star studded party that included Virgin's own Sir Richard Branson arriving via catamaran and holding court amid the Polynesian-style indoor/outdoor estate. The property, with its seven buildings, private and communal areas, lush gardens and water features, looks like a sleek, modern-day Polynesian village, but one perhaps built for royalty.

And yet, you too can rent Mitchell's home and host your own parties there (albeit for a steep $5,150 a night). That's the beauty of Airbnb.

There are properties on the site renting for as much as $10,000 a night, says Mildenhall. For that price, celebs, or whoever rents them, get absolute privacy and five-star service.

"We get a lot of stars that might be in London, for instance, for months shooting a film, and they want more of a home experience with greater privacy," Mildenhall explains. "The art world and the film industry have tended to experiment with Airbnb. During the past few years, as our properties have become more up market, we are attracting more people from those worlds."

Adventure television show host Patrick Sweeney discovered Airbnb's luxurious side a few years ago.

Having done extremely well early-on in his career in the high tech industry, Sweeney was someone accustomed to staying at the world's leading luxury hotels and grew quite used to being spoiled by such accommodations.

But at the suggestion of a friend, Sweeney started seeking out Airbnb properties, and says they have often been just as luxurious, if not more-so, than hotels.

"Actually there are times when Airbnb is way better, because you're getting these cool unknown hideaways," says the Boston resident, who changed careers several years ago and now hosts a variety of television shows including for EpicTV, Outside Television and a weekly program on YouTube called Live Big with Patrick Sweeney.

"One of the biggest benefits of Airbnb is finding places that are really unique, with a lot of character," he continues, noting that many are incredibly luxurious.

"In California, I've found some amazing houses, with multiple swimming pools and home gyms. Some have two swimming pools -  a lap pool and a relaxation pool," he says.

For such deluxe accommodations Sweeney has paid anywhere from $200 to $700 per night, but never higher than that. And when traveling with his family, that price is a relative bargain compared to hotels, which would require renting multiple rooms, he says.

Then there's Manhattan resident and comedian Dan Nainan, who has performed for the likes of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Obama. He too is a regular Airbnb renter.

While touring all over the world, (he's performed in 27 countries so far) Nainan has stayed in some lavish Airbnb listings, including a fashionable townhouse in London that listed for about 800 pounds a night and a beautiful home in Mykonos overlooking the ocean, with a jacuzzi.

"The London townhouse had four levels, five bedrooms, a den, library - it was ridiculous," he said. "I could never afford to buy something like that, but it's nice to stay in something like that once in awhile.

Amid all the rave reviews however, Sweeney, the television host, offers one word of caution - not all Airbnb properties have been what he expected, or what they appeared to be in the listing. 

"In some cases the pictures of the property seemed great, but I can remember something that looked great and I've showed up, once or twice, and said 'Look I'm not going to take the place,' Sweeney said. "There was one place in Barcelona where every time you flushed the toilet, the lights flickered. It can be a little bit hit or miss. But it can also be spectacular. We've had some really good stuff."

Here's a look at few more of the site's deluxe, celebrity-attracting, properties in more detail.


Emma Stone Stayed Here, Oahu, Hawaii
This stunning, gated property on Oahu's Gold Coast includes lush gardens, lavish indoor and outdoor living areas, a gourmet kitchen, heated pool and spa, beach access and a private theater. A four-bedroom property, it rents for $4,000 per night.


Mariah Carey Stayed Here, Malibu, California
An elegant and romantic Mediterranean villa located right on the sand, this house has large, breezy living spaces that lead out to expansive ocean beach decks and patios. It also includes an indoor and outdoor spa, walls of french doors, a gourmet kitchen and a private master suite with fireplace, sitting room and a large, luxurious bathroom that includes a beach facing balcony. Sounds good enough for a diva right? The price tag is also diva-worthy. The home lists for $10,000 per night.


Rihanna Stayed Here, Oahu, Hawaii
Ri Ri is among the celebs who have spent time at Paul Mitchell's ultra private compound. And with its seven bedrooms, the property has enough space to accommodate an A-lister's entire entourage. The main house has a gourmet kitchen, split-level living room and soaring 25-foot-high ceilings. There is also a pool pavilion that has a lagoon-style saltwater swimming pool and spa, a guest house, a Japanese bath house, a kitchen house and a boat house. The price tag for this slice of Hawaiian living at its finest is $5,150 per night.

Olivia Palermo Stayed Here, Sag Harbor, New York
A relative bargain compared to the others on this list, at $1,100 per night, this home includes four bedrooms, three and a half baths, a pool, stunning open living spaces and a master suite.

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