Kinkbnb is the new Airbnb for renting sex dungeons

Sex By Lindsey Kline

A sex dungeon is a hefty investment. Even installing the bare minimum of kink toys — a few sex swings, a spanking bench, and a bondage cross — would put you thousands of dollars in the hole. But in this modern age, you no longer have to build a sex chamber in your own basement to enjoy the benefits of BDSM. No more will you have to worry about waking the neighbors when your sub starts screaming the safe word.

With Kinkbnb, the Airbnb equivalent for scheduling sexcapades, you can rent a nearby private space to bind and gag your partner. Whether you’re traveling abroad or want a local weekend getaway, you can find kink-friendly accommodations all over the world.

The layout of the Kinkbnb site is very similar to the traditional homesharing page — listing amenities such as internet, heating, and parking. However, each home must also list its sexual conveniences, such as “orgy friendly,” “nudist household,” or “whips/paddles provided.”

Beyond that, the site also specifies what types of holidays each property is best suited for. While “adventure,” “retreat,” and “honeymoon” are among the options, many rentals are also ideal for a first-rate “slavecation.”

The Kinkbnb business scheme came to life after Eve Manix, a sex educator in San Francisco, found out firsthand how unfriendly Airbnb can be to those with alternative sexual preferences. When she listed her home on Airbnb last year, she included prominent photos of her sex dungeon, assuming the rare amenity would help her listing stand out from the crowd.

“I didn’t think I was violating Airbnb’s terms and conditions,” Manix says. “I thought I was offering a very San Francisco experience.” However, a few weeks later, Airbnb removed her listing without explanation or apology.

After Manix complained to her social circle, her rants inspired a friend, Darren McKeeman, to co-found Kinkbnb with business partner Ryan Galiotto. McKeeman and Galiotto created the app to devise a “sex positive” alternative to Airbnb that offered mistresses, masters, and slaves someplace safe to stay. Sensing a void in the sharing economy, they strove to give couples the erotic rentals their kinky hearts craved.

Germaphobes may scoff — most people aren’t used to sharing personal items like vibrators and paddles or hooking up on a memory foam mattress where hundreds of others already have. But kinksters don’t mind getting down and dirty, and they want to participate in the sharing economy as much as anyone else. They’d simply prefer to share with other sex-positive people on a sex-positive platform.

Since a number of Airbnb orgies have led to disputes among renters and hosts, a swinger-friendly spin-off site is long overdue.

“People have used Airbnb without negotiating with their host what they want to use the space for,” co-founder Galiotto explains. “One of the important things that we do is have that negotiation upfront, so there are no surprises on either end.”

If you’re ordinarily vanilla, Kinkbnb offers the opportunity to explore yourself and try things you wouldn’t do at home. If you’re a seasoned kinkster, the site’s accommodations can fulfill even the filthiest of your fantasies. In either case, when it comes to the sex-positive sharing economy, Kinkbnb has the market in knots.

[originally published February 1, 2017]