CT Airbnb Among The Most Affordable — And Oddest —In The US: Report

CONNECTICUT — Six of Airbnb's 150 million guests worldwide check in every single second with one of over 4 million hosts worldwide, according to Search Logistics.

Many of those guests are making their lodging decisions based on pricing. Others are looking for an unusual Airbnb experience they can't find anyplace else.

But affordable and unique? That's a tall order — nearly as tall as the silo accommodations at the Connecticut Airbnb that came in at No. 8 on the list of "Most Affordable Must-Visit Airbnbs in the U.S."

The study conducted by online casino site BetMGM analyzed listings data to reveal the most affordable Airbnbs most likely to wow their guests. In Connecticut, with a rating of 4.79 out of five, there was only one contender.

For as low as $73 a night, Sun One Organic Farm in Bethlehem will put you up beneath a 30-foot ceiling on a 65-acre working farm. The silo dates from the 1940s, when pouring out concrete for such structures was not uncommon.

"It's because it's indestructible. It's tornado proof!" Robert Maddox, Sun One's owner told Patch. Maddox said once he was inspired to turn the impregnable grain storage into lodging space, he enlisted the aid of his friend and Yale-trained architect, Misha Seminova-Leiva, for the design and build-out.

The compound consists of a main bedroom area in the silo and abutting bathroom structure. On the second floor above the bathrooms is another room where "more guests of yours can stay or you do work or study in a serene atmosphere," according to the farm's website. The renovation was completed last year.

There's a reason why Sun One is not likely to have a lot of competition in the converted-silo-Airbnb space anytime soon, Maddox explained.

"There are very few people in the world who can work on silos," he said. "But there is a group of people who do, and that's the Amish out of Pennsylvania. So I was able to get in touch with a guy down there who travels all over the Northeast United States fixing silos, and Etham was fantastic."

Amish aside, the quality build and design weren't easy, and neither were they cheap. Maddox said converting the silo, removing the adjacent building, and installing a septic system to code placed him "at financial risk."

But that's all part of the Airbnb experience, in the Bethlehem host's view. If you can't be unique, you shouldn't be playing the game:

"I'm always intrigued when I see some people buy a house, 'Ikea it up,' and charge $400 a night, and I'm, like, 'why?'"

A year later, Maddox's keep-it-small-but-quirky approach is paying off, with lodgers, mostly from New York City, booking way in advance for the opportunity to sleep beneath that 30-foot ceiling.

It's not the first time Sun One has turned heads in the Airbnb industry. Buzzfeed featured the farm's geodesic dome accommodations alongside a Mongolian yurt and a palatial treehouse as prime examples of the "glamping" life. In 2017, a dome video produced for Insider Travel went viral, according to Maddox.

Coming in at No. 1 on the list of the most affordable and unusual is "The Baying Hound Campground" in Asheville, NC. The hosts offer a variety of experiences which begin at $25 a night in the "Trippy Tortoise Shell-ter," a campervan/tent hybrid painted by professional artists in what can be described loosely as a turtle motif.

Maddox's Airbnb business continues to grow. The host said he was readying a new listing, in the form of a loft, in about a month.