She's an Oscar-winning actress and an entrepreneur. A wellness guru, mother and wife. And soon Gwyneth Paltrow will add “Airbnb host” to her CV when she welcomes a maximum of two people to stay — for one night only — in the guest house at her home in the snazzy suburb of Montecito, California.
In a “paid partnership” video posted on Instagram, Paltrow gives her 8.3-million followers a tour of “my beautiful little guest house” and explains that her putting it on Airbnb is about “doing something to make the world a little less lonely”.
However, it is also a huge plug for her wellness and lifestyle company, Goop. The stay is listed on the home-rental platform under the title “Goop-Inspired Stay with Gwyneth Paltrow” and the description oozes with references to the company and its products. The word Goop appears 17 times.
“My Montecito home is my sanctuary for respite and mental clarity,” she writes. “I go there to recharge, to daydream about what we’re building at goop ..."
Paltrow bought the “fixer-upper” in the uber-wealthy neighbourhood — her A-list neighbours include Meghan and Harry, Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres — for $5m (about R94m) in 2016 and showed off her plush renovation in Architectural Digest last year. The sprawling main house, where Paltrow lives with her husband, TV writer Brad Falchuk, and children Apple, 19, and Moses, 17, has four bedrooms and four bathrooms and is on almost a hectare of land.
Airbnb guests will not have access to that house but will stay in the guest cottage — a one bedroom, one bathroom with a kitchen and indoor and outdoor dining space — tucked away “in nature”, as Paltrow says, in a quiet corner of the property. They will also have access to the pool and patio.
In the Airbnb description, Paltrow writes: “I'll be there to greet you upon your arrival and ensure you have all the necessities for a comfortable and rejuvenating stay.”
Then comes the Goop. The house will be “loaded ... with some of my favourite Goop essentials to nourish your body, mind and soul”; “Goop-inspired meals and snacks will be provided” and guests will leave with “an abundance of Goop products to continue your journey towards emotional health”.
For things to do in the area, she also recommends “our Goop store at the gorgeous Rosewood Miramar Beach”.
There will be a guided transcendental meditation session and “a relaxing spa day”. Though it is not included in the listing, in her house tour on Instagram Paltrow says “we could have a little chef's dinner together in our wine room”. As the camera pans the wine collection, she says: “You can select whatever bottle of wine you like and we can have a fantastic cosy dinner with your guest and my husband”.
The stay will take place on September 9. While the price is marked at $0, a spokesperson for Airbnb said this was not a competition and that the booking would be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Booking opens at 10am Pacific Time on August 15, which is 7pm on August 15 in South Africa, but don't bother trying to book if you don't have a US-government-issued ID, which is a qualifying condition.
You must also have an active Airbnb profile; a good track record on the platform; and submit a detailed message with the booking request revealing who you plan to bring with you.
The listing takes care to point out that there are “24/7 security cameras for safety purposes” and there “will be 24-hour security on-site during your stay”. In other words, no funny business.
Well-behaved guests are likely to, as Paltrow gushes, “get as much joy out of the home as I do”.
See the listing here.
