Since 2008, Airbnb has offered an online service that essentially brought a new dimension in terms of finding lodging and short-term residential options in Costa Rica. Airbnb’s business model, which involves empowering property owners in Costa Rica to monetize their unoccupied living spaces by offering them to visitors, has been very successful; however, the hospitality industry initially dismissed the idea as being “for the birds,” and the company is now responding to those comments.

Birdbnb is the name of a clever online marketing project recently launched by Airbnb. For this creative campaign, the company chose 50 of it most interesting properties and turned them into cute birdhouses. These are not your typical boxy birdhouses that are commonly turned in as school projects; they are faithful replicas of lookout towers in Oregon, beach cottages in California, rural estates in the French countryside, indigenous tipis in Canada, and more. Costa Rica also got a birdhouse: The modern and upscale Palm House in Tamarindo Beach, province of Guanacaste.

The Birdbnb website has a short film that explains the birdhouse project, which is appropriately housed at the Audubon Park in New Orleans. Here is the Airbnb rationale for the birdhouses:

No creatures on earth travel quite like birds do.

They soar the skies then land in new places.

They see the world from a different perspective, one to which all real travelers aspire.

This film is a celebration of our passion for travel and the kind of hospitality that makes people feel at home anywhere.

Hoteliers in Costa Rica may think that Airbnb is for the birds, but a few homeowners in Costa Rica have benefited by listing their properties therein. Airnbnb is not the only option. To the chagrin of the hospitality industry, Vayable is another website that is rising to compete with Airbnb in Costa Rica. Vayable describes itself as:

a community marketplace where you can discover, book and offer tours, activities and unique experiences anywhere in the world.

As reported by Forbes magazine, Vayable goes a bit further than Airbnb by matching:

travelers with local experts who take travelers on tours in their home towns. What’s the differentiator with Vayable that people will pay for? With Vayable there’s the uniqueness of the experience, the expertise of the local guide and the customization of the tour. Many of Vayable’s guides are not professional guides but first-time “micro entrepreneurs.”