Expand your square-footage for the weekend with a rented Airstream
ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - If you have guests coming to visit but not enough space to host, there's a way you can bring the hotel room to you.
A Saint Petersburg company offers a service that essentially adds a temporary guest suite to your home.
Guestwings will drop off a 24-foot-long, 8-foot-wide Airstream trailer in your driveway or backyard. They'll even hook up electrical and plumbing.
"It's amazing how many people have fantasies of sleeping in an Airstream," Guestwings co-founder Terri Shapiro said.
She and her husband own and operate the service.
They got the idea while planning their daughter's wedding. "It was a destination wedding so we had tons of people coming from out of town and i wanted my brothers family to stay with us and we didn't have enough room."
Prices range from one $39 to one $79 a night, plus tax and a daily $25 cleaning fee.
Right now Guestwing only services the area surrounding Tampa Bay, with an additional drop-off fee for anywhere more than 25 miles from St. Pete.
Guestwings says be sure to check with your homeowners' association for deed restrictions before booking.
Visit Saint Pete Clearwater estimates nearly half - 44%- of all visitors stay with friends or family for an average of about five or six days.
"What is it, guests, like fish, smell after a few days ," Terri jokes. "They're not kidding."
So customers want privacy!
She offers a tour of the RV. And its not your grandma's Airstream. Granite counter topped kitchen with stove and microwave... even a convection oven greet you as you walk in the door.
"And then a full size bed and a tv that pulls out and goes wherever you go - these fold down for the kids or extra adult," Mike Shapiro demonstrates. "That is radio also a surround sound along with dvd and your computers plug in - blue tooth."
He pulls open a door. " See? A full size shower!"
Guestwings says business picks up around special family events and holidays. Putting a new spin - on a retro fave.