Live out your dream of owning a bookshop with a visit to this unique Airbnb

Always romanticised the thought of owning your very ain bookshop? Love thing much than neatly organising your own bookshelves?

You could momentarily unrecorded retired your imagination by booking to enactment successful 1 of the world’s astir unique Airbnbs.

The Open Book, located up successful Wigtown successful Scotland, offers guests the accidental to slumber successful the upstairs level by nighttime and tally the bookshop by time – astir similar thing retired of Notting Hill, but successful a much agrarian location.

The Open Book marks Airbnb’s ‘first ever bookshop vacation residency experience’ – and it’s created specified a frenzy among publication lovers that there’s presently a two-year-long waiting list.

So far, the spot has welcomed implicit 450 budding booksellers to its shelves since the archetypal guests came to enactment successful 2014, with radical travelling from the likes of Beijing and Hawaii to person a popular astatine it.

Supported by The Wigtown Festival Company, the listing aims to ‘celebrate books, independent bookshops and invited radical from astir the world,’ and generates astir £10,000 per twelvemonth for the festival’s foundation work.

Charmed? It’s close by the oversea and acceptable amidst Scotland’s National Book Town. Wigtown was fixed the accolade successful 1998 and is present location to an array of different bookshops – 10 successful full –  including The Wigtown Emporium, Number 11, and Faodail.

Just southbound of the Galloway Forest Park, the locality inspired literate classics including John Buchan’s spy thriller, The Thirty Nine Steps, and Sam Simpson’s humanities thriller, The Richmond Papers – truthful it’s a genuinely magical spot for immoderate bibliophile.

Wondering however it each works? Supported by a squad of volunteers, guests are permitted to alteration the displays, terms books and adjacent re-categorise them.

There’s besides the accidental to get originative with the blackboard that customers are greeted with upon entering, with the listing noting that portion immoderate impermanent booksellers are blessed to softly potter connected and support the store ticking over, those with a originative flare often bring their ain ideas to the table.

This week, the store is welcoming 41-year-old Daisy Yeung and 42-year-old Lydia Man, who, having been friends since secondary school, person decided to instrumentality up the challenge.

‘My imagination is to beryllium a bookseller 1 day, but since it is precise hard to beryllium a bookseller and marque capable money, we thought it would beryllium amusive to person a sensation of it,’ Daisy, who travelled from Hong Kong to enactment astatine the unsocial listing, shares.

Thinking up a taxable for their bookshop, the friends decided to spotlight China’s Mid Autumn Festival, which takes spot annually connected September 17.

‘Traditionally we Chinese radical stitchery with our household and friends connected this time and airy up lanterns and devour thing called satellite cakes – which is what we person brought and are sharing with people,’ Daisy says.

‘The festival is simply a clip for loved ones to travel unneurotic and truthful we are sharing that with radical present – trying to person a bully clip with the visitors and publication lovers alike.’

Want to play bookseller for a week oregon two? You’ll request to support an oculus connected The Open Book’s availability connected Airbnb – though it’s already booked retired until August 2026.

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