Kinkbnb Offers Home Sharing For Fetish Fans

Kinkbnb Offers Home Sharing For Fetish FansDarren McKeeman and Matias Drago. (Photo: Geri Koeppel/Hoodline)
Geri Koeppel
Published on October 07, 2015

These days, there's an "Airbnb for" everything from boats (Boatbound) to campsites (Hipcamp) to toilets (Airpnp). So it's no surprise that there's also an Airbnb for fetish fans.

Kinkbnb.com bills itself as "a private sex-positive homesharing community" where you can "book your kinky vacation!" Like Airbnb, it lists on-site amenities like a washer/dryer, gym or wireless Internet, but it also has some more unusual options, like sex furniture, dungeon and sex toys. While many look to see if a listing is pet-friendly, Kinkbnbs can also be orgy-friendly, swinger-friendly, and nudist-friendly. The going rate tends to fall around $100–$300 a night; the hosts set the price, just as on Airbnb.

The fledgling company is headquartered in North Beach, a longtime nexus of sex-positive culture. The Barbary Coast was known for its brothels from the Gold Rush days through the early twentieth century; before the Castro, the city's gay and lesbian bar scene flourished there in the 1940s and '50s. To this day, the area is well-known for its exotic dance clubs along Broadway and Kearny Street; Kinkbnb operates in offices not far from the glow of the neon from those clubs. 

Kinkbnb listing "Dominion Texas." 

Kinkbnb officially went live on May 1st, and now has listings in 20 countries and more than 60 cities, including many in San Francisco neighborhoods, from Potrero Hill to Sea Cliff to SoMa. The site is members-only; you can submit an email on the homepage to ask to join.

"It’s a very broad community, from one end of the spectrum to the other of gender and sexual orientation," says cofounder Matias Drago. "Sometimes it’s just play and it's fun and interesting, and doesn’t involve sex." Some listings are dark and dungeon-like, while others are bright and cheery.

Kinkbnb listing "Decameron."

The idea for Kinkbnb came about when one of cofounder Darren McKeeman's friends, a professional dominatrix named Eve, listed her place on Airbnb, complete with photos of her fully equipped dungeon. The site quickly pulled the listing, probably due to images of sex toys, McKeeman says.

Eve was irked. "She got on Facebook and complained about it, as people are wont to do," he says. "I said, 'There should be a site for people who want to rent out their sex dungeons.'” (We contacted Airbnb for details on why the listing was removed and what the company thinks of its darker twin, but didn't hear back.)

Kinkbnb booth at Folsom Street Fair. (Photo: Matias Drago)

The incident made McKeeman think there could be a market for this, so he checked for the URL "kinkbnb.com," snapped it up for a mere $12, and created the site. Drago partnered with him as the business and money guy of the group; they're actively working on lining up investors. 

The site's third cofounder, Ryan Galiotto, handles marketing. He's also the founder and co-owner of Wicked Grounds Kink Cafe & Boutique in SoMa, which sells everything from clips and clamps to cappuccino. Galiotto's cafe is a hub for the fetish community, so word is spreading there. 

"He’s gotten us a lot of good connections to the community," Drago says of Galiotto. "He’s reaching out to several of the local dungeons to get them to list on us."

Kinkbnb at Folsom Street Fair. (Photo: Matias Drago)

Users on the site range from the "50 Shades of Grey" crowd, whose curiosity was piqued by the popular book and movie, to hardcore BDSM practitioners, many in the gay community. Kinkbnb had a booth at this year's Folsom Street Fair, which caused web traffic to spike, said McKeeman. Galiotto was instrumental in organizing the site's outreach and entertainment for Folsom, which saw crowds rivaling those on the big stages. 

Open house at a Kinkbnb location in San Francisco. (Photo: Matias Drago)

The company has already earned a slew of local, national and international press, everywhere from Cosmopolitan, HuffPost and Playboy to SFist and The Times (London). These days, they're looking to spread the word that they're supporting a push to decriminalize sex work, a topic that's been in the news after both Amnesty International's recent vote on the subject and the shutdown of Rentboy.com.

To start, Kinkbnb is donating to the Red Umbrella Policy Project and Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP). It plans to expand donations to other groups as well. "It’s like Prohibition," Drago says of sex work. "It only serves to drive things underground, to create black markets and to make it less safe for things that are already going to happen anyway.”

Open house at a Kinkbnb location in San Francisco. (Photo: Matias Drago)

Not coincidentally, the site will roll out hourly rental rates in November. "That’s part of our sex-worker initiative, because giving a sex worker a safe place to go is also part of our mission," McKeeman said.

Where it's legal, a host—separately from the site, which only rents space—can offer prostitution, including in Canada, Mexico, Australia, and much of Europe and South America (check out this Thrillist map for details). Hourly rates also make sense, Drago added, for those who don't have a private space for BDSM play (maybe they have kids, or live with relatives).

Kinkbnb held an open house on Sept. 25th to showcase a host space and demonstrate what the company is about, complete with entertainment and drinks. Future events will be announced on its Facebook page.