Since Airbnb was founded 15 years ago to provide property owners with a way to rent out their homes, numerous similar platforms have been born.
Some lodging platforms take marijuana-friendly listings, while a small number of cannabis-specific platforms also have appeared, such as California-based Bud and Breakfast, which has about 3,000 listings, and Ontario, Canada-based HiBnb, which boasts about 300 listings.
“With the way that the cannabis industry is going and the price of flower plummeting … this is like a salvation for a lot of these guys in the Emerald Triangle. They’re turning it into a tourism mecca,” said Sean Roby, CEO of Bud and Breakfast.
“For a lot of them, the only thing they can do is create a revenue stream in that way.”
A small but growing number of licensed cannabis farms are tapping into accommodation-platform opportunities, which could not be coming at a better time for cultivators, given that many are battling to survive because of depressed flower prices, high taxes and other factors hurting their bottom lines.
HiBnb CEO Elizabeth Becker agreed that growers can find revenue opportunities beyond cultivation and that sites such as hers can assist.
“HiBnb is working hard to assist the farmers who are looking for secondary revenue streams considering the weakness in the cannabis industry and in the economy,” she said.
Roby estimated that 5%-10% of Bud and Breakfast’s listings are by licensed marijuana businesses; most of them are in California and the Pacific Northwest, plus Colorado and a small number of other states.
Becker estimated that one or two dozen of HiBnb’s 300 listings are licensed cannabis businesses – mostly in California and Ontario, Canada – while she is pursuing new listings in New York.
In terms of commissions, Bud and Breakfast collects 7% from the host and 10% from guests, per booking. HiBnb takes an 8% commission from the hosts.
A ‘glampsite’ is born
One cultivation business expanding into hospitality is Sol Spirit Farm in Trinity County, located in California’s Emerald Triangle.
It’s a regenerative farm run by owner-operators Judi Nelson, a holistic physical therapist, and Walter Wood, a permaculture expert.
Nelson and Wood had dreamed for years about offering retreats and workshops at their farm.
But before California legalized recreational marijuana, it felt too risky to invite strangers onto the property.
That all changed when California’s recreational marijuana market launched in 2018; by the summer of 2019, the pair was hosting their first “glamping” guests.
To get the glamping site ready, they found an unused plot of land on their 26-acre farm and let pigs loose to clear the invasive weeds.
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