【Watch Playboy: Wet & Wild 3 (1991)】

Airbnb just launched a new service called Airbnb Luxe that's offering a week on Watch Playboy: Wet & Wild 3 (1991)a French Polynesian "private atoll," complete with a 21-bedroom mansion and 50 staff, for $1 million.

Not only will Airbnb rent you an extraordinarily fancy property, it'll also set you up with a "dedicated trip designer" who will coordinate everything, including excursions and activities, to really help you pick up on the authentic local flavor.

Basically, Airbnb is bringing back travel agents for people who can afford to drop stacks of cash to stay in a French castle. It somewhat oxymoronically describes the service as "a new luxury experience that makes personal and bespoke travel more accessible to everyone." Everyone, who?

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable SEE ALSO: 53 men and 9 women own as much wealth as half the world's population, Oxfam says

Airbnb Luxe will launch with over 2,000 properties, which it boasts have been hand selected and inspected for quality. It says the new tier was made possible by its 2017 acquisition of the company Luxury Retreats. It also said it pursued the new business model because rentals of $1,000/night properties on Airbnb increased by more than 60 percent in 2018.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Airbnb Luxe will be the tier above Airbnb Plus, a service the company launched in 2018 that quality assures fancy homes in cities all over the world. The difference is those are still homes — Airbnb Luxe is, like, private islands.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

This is obviously a niche service that seems really freaking cool if you can afford it. But that's the point: increasingly, most people can't.

Airbnb has a problematic legacy of causing increased rents for everyday people as more affordable properties get turned into short term vacation rentals. This is a cycle that contributes to the growing wealth gap as people allocate more of their paychecks to paying rent, while property developers rake in the dough.

Should Airbnb really be focusing on catering to the needs of the wealthy when its base business model is reportedly hurting the communities it relies upon?

But hey, at least it's easier to rent castles now.

---

Featured Video For You

---

This Airbnb is straight out of a Wes Anderson movie

---

Topics Airbnb

• Shopping
• Games
• Digital Culture
• Tech
• Life
• Science
• Deals
• Social Good

• The Most Disappointing PC Games of 2017
• Beyond Strategy
• Old-School Organizing in the Heartland
• The Speaker and the Ironworker
• Trump’s Family Leave Shell Game
• I’ve been working on this post…. for ten minutes…. just tweet it out
• 7 Tech Predictions for 2018
• Missing Perspectives
• Conspiracies, War, and Democrats
• Techies and Tankies

• Alibaba’s ModelScope attracts over 2 million developers amid AI frenzy · TechNode
• Huawei collaborates with China's JAC to build $140K luxury van: analyst · TechNode
• Stand on the surface of an alien planet with NASA
• Vivo introduces self
• Spotify will let you use AI to create personalized playlists
• X passkeys are now global. Here's how you can use Face ID, Touch ID to sign in.
• Best Target Circle Week deal: Get a $10 Target gift card when you purchase a $50 gift card
• Lenovo may launch handheld game console Legion Go: report · TechNode
• Wordle today: The answer and hints for April 7
• eBay introduces AI

• Putting Millions Back to Work
• Justin Trudeau and his Socks
• The Secret Policeman at the Marathon
• News from Nowhere Episode 10
• The Speaker and the Ironworker
• Whale Vomit Episode 7: Hope in the Time of Cholera
• Putting People First in Pennsylvania
• A few things we’ve enjoyed this week
• Malls and movies and drones, oh my.
• Laboring Academia

• After the Fire
• A Rich Fable
• The Musk of Success
• Right to Burn
• I’m Sticking with My President
• The Online Culture Wars
• Laboring Academia
• No Is Not Enough: Naomi Klein on Looking Beyond Trump
• Whale Vomit Episode 8
• Whale Vomit Episode 7: Hope in the Time of Cholera