Are you proud of your home and willing to share it for supplemental cash? Are you looking for something less sterile than a hotel for your reunion of college friends? Try Airbnb.com (newer, easier to search, a little hipper, with more security filters) or VRBO.com (a longer-established listing service with a slightly older demographic, skewing to families and longer stays). A quick browse of local properties will remind you of the crazy variety our area has to offer—and what sort of getaway you need right now.
Pick Your Mood
Get a weekly dose of home and style inspiration
Subscribe to the St. Louis Design+Home newsletter to explore the latest stories from the local interior design, fashion, and retail scene.
Some rentals are discreet little fantasies—luxe penthouses, ivied carriage houses, a 7-acre wooded estate in the middle of Clayton. Others are romps made to order for a family, such as the five-bedroom Lake Sherwood house with swimming dock, kayaks, and a paddleboat (vrbo.com/333364). Or Tami Morton’s log cabin in scenic Marthasville with a lake in the front yard and “more wildlife than imaginable” (vrbo.com/746985).
Pick Your Era
A fun modern house uses old Macs as a cocktail table pedestal. A bungalow on Route 66 goes vintage, with bedrooms themed to ’40s tropical travel and the Space Age ’50s (airbnb.com/rooms/832639). The Kuhlmann Wagon Shop in St. Charles dates back to the 1830s (vrbo.com/469831), and Sarah Grobe’s Soulard rowhouse was on the city map in 1875 (airbnb.com/rooms/4376387).
Pick Your Ambience
Patti Gabriel turned an old Clifton Heights bakery (pictured) with big storefront windows into a gallery for folk artist Theresa Disney. Here, guests are surrounded by Disney’s bright, colorful art—even in the Back Room, which Gabriel rents for small parties (vrbo.com/801974). Jessica Gibbens went for the opposite mood, sleek and Buddhist-serene, with her 1909 rehab in Tower Grove (airbnb.com/rooms/11398267). Ben and Sara Brown now spend their summers on a sailboat in the Bahamas but couldn’t bear to part with their big house on Piasa Road in Elsah, so they rent it as a gated-garden retreat (airbnb.com/rooms/6950045).
Tender Touches
Luxury bedding and Netflix are no-brainers, but they don’t warm the heart. Sarah Grobe keeps her fridge stocked with local craft beer and offers Kakao chocolates. Tami Morton gives guests a discount to her spa. Jessica Gibbens bought two little boys a coloring book and markers; Patti Gabriel bought Cardinals peanuts and pencils for a young family and fills a basket with toiletries, fresh cream, and freshly ground gourmet coffee for the grownups.
