Picture this: Your vacation accommodation is an Airstream trailer, on a blueberry farm, within walking distance of the unique ecology of the Weeks Bay estuary, just a few minutes from scenic Fairhope or a few more from Alabama’s beaches.
Sound good? You’re not the only one to think so. The Airbnb “superhost” who offers it is Alabama’s most hospitable host, according to state-by-state rankings just released by the service.
To earn the top spot, a host had to earn 100% five-star reviews in three categories: Cleanliness, Check-In and Communication. There were several hosts in Alabama who met that standard, according to Airbnb, but Rachel from Fairhope had the most reviews: more than 300 for her three listings.
Those three guest properties are listed as “Silver Sail Airstream,” “Glamping Silver Bullet,” and “Sanitized Fairfield Farm Cottage.” The travel trailers (one Airstream, the other a similarly styled vintage Avion) accommodate two or three people, with amenities including covered outdoor seating areas and fire pits; the cottage can take up to five, counting pets. Advertised rates vary from $108 to $169 per night.
The host’s descriptions of the sites tantalize with a variety of amenities and perks: Outdoor couches for stargazing, the presence of horses and other animals, herb gardens where guests can pick their own seasonings, three different kinds of coffee maker in the cottage, bicycles and kayaks available for guest use and 20 acres of farm to roam. There’s so much to do on site, the host says in the description, that “most of our guests never leave the property.” Full details can be found on the Airbnb site and more images can be seen at www.instagram.com/fairhopestay.
Rachel Clarke said the whole thing blossomed quite quickly. In 2018 she and her husband Uli were living in south Florida when they fled a hurricane threat. They ended up in Baldwin County, where Clarke had lived years earlier, and somehow the prospect of taking their horses back to south Florida had lost its appeal. They found a small farm for sale and made that their new home.
Up to that point, Clarke said, she’d considered herself primarily a horse trainer and dressage trainer. “Initially my dream was to have my property full of horses,” she said, “And now it’s full of people.”
The transition wasn’t planned but happened in a natural series of steps. There was a cottage on the property that needed renovation. Once it was fixed up, Clarke didn’t feel like moving into it: She and Uli continued to reside in the loft of the barn, where she could be close to the horses downstairs. She didn’t like the idea of doing a long-term rental, so Uli suggested trying it out as an Airbnb site. She was skeptical, but it took off. He suggested putting their Airstream in the mix. Again she was skeptical, she said, and again it was a hit.
This farm cottage is the largest of several sites offered by Alabama's most hospitable Airbnb host.Airbnb
“It’s funny to me,” she said. “I still can’t believe it.”
While some guests do stop in on their way to destinations, be that Alabama’s beaches or more distant goals such as Disney World, many come simply for a getaway. Once they arrive, they don’t necessarily have a checklist of sights they want to see. “That’s weird too, to me,” Clarke said. “I push people to take the kayak to the river in Magnolia Springs.”
“They’re wonderful people that want to be outside,” she said. “They want to pick blueberries or cucumbers or whatever I have in the greenhouse. They want to pet the horses and walk around. With COVID, we all needed that.”
Over the last year, she said, many guests have simply wanted a getaway, a change of scenery. Some have come from just a few miles up the road, some have come from as far away as Maine.
The prevalence of five-star ratings is a little bit of a mystery to her, she said. She wants to make sure people enjoy their stay, but she doesn’t want to be intrusive. She said she thinks the ratings say more about the guests than they do about her.
“The people that we actually get are amazing,” she said. They don’t pick the place at random, she said. She’s found that they read other reviews closely and give them a lot of weight, so they arrive knowing what they’re going to find and ready to appreciate it. It’s a positive cycle.
As for where this all leads, Clarke said she wouldn’t want it to get much bigger. But a new dressage arena is a step in expanding the place’s appeal to horse owners. It raises the possibility that visitors can stable their horses on-site and take them to trails in the area, such as those at Historic Blakeley State Park.
Nationally, according to Airbnb, 310 hosts achieved the 100% review standard. A host in Asheville, N.C., topped the rankings with 530 perfect reviews. North Carolina and California have the most top-ranked hosts, with 35 in each state.
Of the 50 state leaders, all are classed as superhosts, which Airbnb defines as “experienced hosts who provide a shining example for other hosts, and extraordinary experiences for their guests” and “the people who are most dedicated to providing outstanding hospitality.” The majority have listings that are on or attached to the property where they reside. They tend not to run rental empires: 42 of the 50 have just one or two listings.
The Baldwin County blueberry farm wasn’t the only leader in the region: Florida’s most hospitable host is a modest guest suite in the Panhandle community of Cantonment, Fla.