Have you ever been flagged by the TSA for carrying sex toys in your luggage? Have you ever been curious about exploring a room with spanking benches? Meet KinkBNB—it's like Airbnb, but with more whips and leather.
The site seeks to provide a safe and private way to explore sexual fantasies, without the additional cost and potential awkwardness of booking a hotel room.
KinkBNB was founded in May 2015 by Ryan Galiotto and Darren McKeeman, who wanted to create a community that allows people to celebrate and participate in kinky sex, while educating and connecting beginners, too.
The site allows you to book dungeons—rooms equipped with cages, sex toys, and love swings—and orgy parties. Galiotto spoke with NTRSCTN on the phone about the motivation behind and future of KinkBNB.
How did KinkBnB come to be?
A friend of McKeeman's had a guest room posted on a popular accommodation site and without any warning her listing got removed. She complained about it online and Darren [decided] to posted a mock website and picked up the URL Kinkbnb.com. Within a day, we had 100 people sign up. Even [with] just a mock site I thought, “Yes, let’s run with this.” And then we started putting the company together after that.
Why was McKeeman’s friend’s listing taken down?
She never got an official explanation, but she does have an addition to her very normal guest room a very elaborate tricked out dungeon room/adult play space. She assumed that might have been in one of her pictures that the company took of her listing.
Sometimes it’s not as easy—especially in this country—to travel with your sexual identity.
What kind of needs does KinkBNB meet?
When one is traveling, sometimes it’s not as easy—especially in this country—to travel with your sexual identity. It’s different from the norm and we’d like to make that easier for the sex positive traveler. [There are] a few things that our sites offers besides connecting interested parties with beautiful and fun adult spaces and a lot of different themes.
In Leipzig, Germany, you can rent a prison cell in a prison for the night. All you get is a prison cell. There’s a really nice apartment, that’s decorated in all adult-sized child furniture for people that like to do age-play. In addition to our fun specialized spaces, we also have a lot of very beautiful classic dungeon spaces that have adult furniture, like crosses and cages and swings and things.
How does KinkBNB work when it comes to renting out spaces?
The host will approach us like, “Hey, I have a site,” and we ask them to give us a listing with clear and presentable pictures and a description of what they are offering. Our amenities are a little bit different and a little more complex. In addition to if there’s a TV and AC, we also have: Is there bondage furniture? Is there education available? Is it orgy-friendly? Is it nudist-friendly?
One thing we do is [encourage] our host to lay out exactly what their house rules are and what they allow at their space. So when a traveler is looking at the space, they can find a place that fits their needs when they travel or they can do a date night in town.
What happens when guests don't follow the rules?
We have set up a very strong peer review program. The host is able to review the guests, and the guests will review the host. We take a lot on the first level of trust because we want to give people a chance, but if any of them break or bend the rules, then they’re not allowed to use the service anymore. We’re hoping we don’t have to do that.
What is KinkBNB's demographic?
We have just shy of 12K users and they are across the world. We have listings in 80 cities in over 30 countries. We have a wide variety of people.
Society puts sexual in the bedroom and we can’t have that out in the public. Why? Why should you not be able to express your sexual self in public?
What have you observed about the greater kink scene's demographic?
My previous business was called Wicked Grounds, a coffee shop boutique here in San Francisco. Wicked Grounds was a coffee shop where we still served food—and while certain things we couldn’t do there because of food requirements—it was still a place you could express your sexual identity in a social environment.
One thing we believe in: Society has separated social and sexual. Society puts sexual in the bedroom and we can’t have that out in the public. Why? Why should you not be able to express your sexual self in public? That’s what we did with Wicked Grounds, a comfortable place where people could come and openly talk about and engage in some activities—like collar exchange, where one party has more control over another person. Or people like to engage in animal play, where they run around and act like a puppy.
Taking the idea of mixing sexual identity and a social environment, KinkBNB tries to connect people while they’re traveling with other people. If I rent with KinkBNB, not only do I have a play space available, but this also gives me a host who lives there in that environment who can help me, and hopefully people can build friendships and help increase the sexual diversity and sex positive community.
Do you think KinkBNB helps beginners join the kink scene?
I really hope so. It’s part of my personal belief that we should be allowed to explore and experience ourselves. Society puts a lot of sexuality down, like you can’t be sexual or explore that. KinkBNB gives you a tool to find places to play like this and find other people that can show you around as well.
It’s not easy to travel with your kinks.
Some of our hosts are professionals in the lifestyle and can offer educational courses. A new person can come to us and see that we have an educational amenity and contact the host like, “We'd like to rent your space—is it possible to get information and maybe an introduction into what to do with this space once I’ve rented it?”
How do you hope KinkBNB will fit into the greater kink scene?
I really want us to connect different cities across the world to each other. Allow people to travel back and forth a little easier. It’s not easy to travel with your kinks. TSA gives you a hard time on stuff enough as it is, imagine having some toys with you?
I’m really hoping that helps [hosts]: Committing part of your home to adult play space—a place that has a certain function like this—is expensive, and it’s very much a privilege, and not everyone has that ability. Hopefully through us, that space can generate some income so they’ll have more incentive to build more spaces. I’m hoping it brings the medium-interested people able to make another step forward, as well.
Does KinkBNB provide an easier and more private way to enter the scene?
We’re trying to make it easy. We’re in the middle of making it easier than it is now. We want to take that scary barrier away from this kind of place and make it more accessible for people who are new. This whole sexuality is taboo—you can’t do this—but on the flip side, everyone is flocking out to read Fifty Shades of Grey.
I don’t necessarily like the craft of Fifty Shades of Grey, but I do appreciate it that it has brought attention to the issue and brought people permission to explore it. Every little image helps normalize and helps society to accept it a little more.
What's the response to KinkBNB been like?
I’ve been really amazed that it’s all been positive so far. We haven’t had anyone come out and really give us a hard time about what we’re trying to do. A lot of the press about us has been positive and respectful of being sex positive. As long it keeps going like this, it’s been great.
What do you hope for the future of KinkBnB?
I really hope that KinkBNB grows to be very useful to people. We’re building this tool and more people engage in it. The more people can explore themselves, the happier they can be. I want to share that more and more. Who doesn’t like being sexy?
