Ever wanted to run your own country for a while? Thanks to an online service, you can — assuming you've got $70,000 to waste.
The Next Web reports that rental marketplace Airbnb has partnered up with Rent a Village by Xnet, a Liechtenstein-based event production and marketing company, in order to add some new rental listings.
Why should that be exciting news for you? Because it means that as long as your wallet can handle it, you can rent any of these countries and villages:
- Principality of Liechtenstein
- Brand, Austria
- Mariazell, Austria
- Alpbach, Austria
- Pertisaue, Austria
- Mondsee, Austria
- Goldegg, Austria
- Deidesheim, Germany
- Trittenheim, Germany
- Braunlage, Germany
- Engelberg, Switzerland
As Airbnb explains, these particular rentals aren't really aimed at the average vacationer — though there is absolutely no indication that the service would turn away anyone who's looking to fulfill a quick country-owning fantasy — instead the places are intended to entice folks who are organizing events or larger company retreats:
Rent a Village by Xnet partners with these destinations to transform them into highly customized settings for events, corporate retreats, conferences, and more. With Xnet and Airbnb, events take place throughout the idyllic landscape of your host destination, not in some generic hotel. The local people earn a living because each event draws heavily on local vendors and service providers for everything from accommodations and catering, to infrastructure and activity production.
And just what do renters get for their money? What don't they get!
A major component of renting a village or country is booking a large portion of the municipality's available accommodations, but that is just the beginning. The possibilities for customizing the experience are almost endless — rename city streets and town squares, print your own temporary currencies, carve logos or names into the snow on the mountainside — and that is just the tip of the iceberg. The mayors and marching bands can welcome you with a custom medieval festival and present you the key to the city, or perhaps a wine tasting event at a Prince's estate followed by a fireworks show is more your style.
You did read that right. Custom-printed temporary currency, mountainside snow carvings, and just about anything you can dream up — the country-lines are the only limit.
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Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter, loves to be liked on Facebook, and wants to rent Liceehtenstein for a while. Anyone want to chip in on that?