Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania is home to tens of thousands of farms, and Airbnb wants you to stay on them.<\/p>\n
The short-term rental giant is partnering with the American Farmland Trust and recruiting Keystone State farmers \u2014 and even offering grants \u2014 to host guests and tap into the growing agritourism industry. The average farmstay listing on Airbnb, the company said, can make an extra $9,600 per year.<\/p>\n
Valerie and Jeff Fellenbaum said they\u2019re making much more than that at Pleasant Pines Stables, their early-19th-century horse farm in Lancaster County.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we started, we never looked back,\u201d Valerie Fellenbaum said. \u201cI would say, from March to about the end of October, we\u2019re anywhere from 85% to 90% booked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nationwide, farms \u2014 particularly smaller operations \u2014 struggle to say profitable and find alternate sources of revenue, and agritourism is leading the way. Some farms, like Arasapha Farm in Glen Mills<\/a>, transform into wildly popular Halloween attractions every fall. Others host concerts and court influencers who take selfies in acres of sunflowers. <\/p>\n According to Airbnb, Google Trends shows U.S. search interest for \u201cfarm stay\u201d nearly quadrupled between 2016 and early 2026. The vacation rental company is partnering with the American Farmland Trust to offer farmers up to $10,000 through the Farm to Stay Grant Program. Farmers could use the funds to renovate or prepare their property to host overnight guests and launch unique farm-based experiences. <\/p>\n \u201cThis really gives folks the opportunity to broaden their horizons,\u201d said Ashley Brucker, American Farmland Trust\u2019s senior manager of grantmaking. \u2018It gives them a little more freedom.”<\/p>\n Brucker said interested farmers can apply at farmland.org<\/a> and attend informational webinars. Workshops will be held on Oct. 14<\/a> at 5:00 p.m. and Nov. 13<\/a> at 12:00 p.m <\/p>\n Webinars will discuss how Airbnb works, with particular emphasis on rural and farm stays, the company said. <\/p>\n At the Fellenbaums\u2019 Airbnb, Valerie said guests can simply enjoy the peace of a rural farm or ride horses.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople really love to come and see the horses,\u201d she said, \u201cand we give them opportunities to do more than see them.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Pennsylvania is home to tens of thousands of farms, and Airbnb wants you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[122204,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-295450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-airbnb-pennsylvania-farmstay-agritourism","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}