This Fairhope blueberry farm is Alabama’s most hospitable Airbnb web-site

Photo this: Your holiday accommodation is an Airstream trailer, on a blueberry farm, within strolling distance of the special ecology of the Months Bay estuary, just a handful of minutes from scenic Fairhope or a handful of extra from Alabama’s seashores.

Seem very good? You are not the only just one to think so. The Airbnb “superhost” who provides it is Alabama’s most hospitable host, according to state-by-condition rankings just released by the service.

To earn the top rated location, a host had to receive 100% 5-star reviews in a few types: Cleanliness, Check out-In and Conversation. There had been various hosts in Alabama who achieved that conventional, according to Airbnb, but Rachel from Fairhope experienced the most evaluations: additional than 300 for her a few listings.

These three visitor attributes are outlined as “Silver Sail Airstream,” “Glamping Silver Bullet,” and “Sanitized Fairfield Farm Cottage.” The travel trailers (one Airstream, the other a equally styled classic Avion) accommodate two or three folks, with facilities like lined outdoor seating spots and hearth pits the cottage can just take up to five, counting pets. Advertised charges change from $108 to $169 per night time.

The host’s descriptions of the websites tantalize with a range of facilities and benefits: Out of doors couches for stargazing, the presence of horses and other animals, herb gardens where friends can pick their have seasonings, 3 distinctive kinds of coffee maker in the cottage, bicycles and kayaks available for guest use and 20 acres of farm to roam. There is so substantially to do on web site, the host states in the description, that “most of our company in no way depart the residence.” Total information can be identified on the Airbnb internet site and much more photos can be viewed at www.instagram.com/fairhopestay.

Rachel Clarke explained the whole issue blossomed really quickly. In 2018 she and her spouse Uli had been residing in south Florida when they fled a hurricane risk. They finished up in Baldwin County, in which Clarke had lived decades previously, and by some means the prospect of using their horses again to south Florida had misplaced its charm. They located a small farm for sale and created that their new household.

Up to that place, Clarke explained, she’d viewed as herself mainly a horse coach and dressage trainer. “Initially my aspiration was to have my home total of horses,” she stated, “And now it’s full of men and women.”

The changeover was not prepared but took place in a purely natural sequence of actions. There was a cottage on the house that wanted renovation. The moment it was set up, Clarke did not sense like transferring into it: She and Uli continued to reside in the loft of the barn, the place she could be shut to the horses downstairs. She did not like the plan of undertaking a long-term rental, so Uli recommended making an attempt it out as an Airbnb web-site. She was skeptical, but it took off. He instructed putting their Airstream in the blend. Again she was skeptical, she mentioned, and once again it was a hit.

“It’s amusing to me,” she explained. “I even now just can’t feel it.”

Even though some company do prevent in on their way to places, be that Alabama’s beach locations or additional distant ambitions these kinds of as Disney Entire world, a lot of arrive basically for a getaway. After they arrive, they do not necessarily have a checklist of sights they want to see. “That’s odd far too, to me,” Clarke explained. “I press individuals to acquire the kayak to the river in Magnolia Springs.”

“They’re wonderful people that want to be outdoors,” she stated. “They want to pick blueberries or cucumbers or whatsoever I have in the greenhouse. They want to pet the horses and stroll about. With COVID, we all necessary that.”

In excess of the very last yr, she reported, quite a few attendees have merely preferred a getaway, a modify of scenery. Some have appear from just a handful of miles up the road, some have occur from as considerably absent as Maine.

The prevalence of 5-star rankings is a minor little bit of a thriller to her, she claimed. She would like to make absolutely sure persons delight in their stay, but she does not want to be intrusive. She explained she thinks the ratings say much more about the visitors than they do about her.

“The individuals that we actually get are wonderful,” she reported. They do not pick the location at random, she explained. She’s observed that they read through other opinions intently and give them a great deal of body weight, so they arrive realizing what they’re going to uncover and ready to take pleasure in it. It is a positive cycle.

As for the place this all sales opportunities, Clarke claimed she wouldn’t want it to get significantly more substantial. But a new dressage arena is a move in increasing the place’s enchantment to horse entrepreneurs. It raises the likelihood that guest
s can stable their horses on-web-site and consider them to trails in the place, these as individuals at Historic Blakeley Point out Park.

Nationally, according to Airbnb, 310 hosts obtained the 100% overview common. A host in Asheville, N.C., topped the rankings with 530 perfect critiques. North Carolina and California have the most best-rated hosts, with 35 in each point out.

Of the 50 state leaders, all are classed as superhosts, which Airbnb defines as “experienced hosts who present a shining illustration for other hosts, and remarkable ordeals for their guests” and “the folks who are most focused to giving exceptional hospitality.” The greater part have listings that are on or connected to the house the place they reside. They are likely not to run rental empires: 42 of the 50 have just a person or two listings.

The Baldwin County blueberry farm wasn’t the only chief in the area: Florida’s most hospitable host is a modest guest suite in the Panhandle local community of Cantonment, Fla.