Airbnb highlights unique properties through funding campaign

Airbnb has launched an initiative to finance 100 unique property ideas.

The “$10,000,000 OMG! Fund” aims to help designers, architects and DIY enthusiasts bring their ideas to life and potentially host them on Airbnb.

The fund will provide $100,000 each to 100 people to create their property and add it to the company’s list of one-off places to stay.

Judges including Kristie Wolfe, an Airbnb superhost and the creator of OMG! Listings, Koichi Takada, founder of Koichi Takada Architects and Bruce Vaughn, vice president of experiential creative product for Airbnb.

In a post explaining the fund further, Airbnb says its launch is “shaped in part by the growing trend of flexible living that has emerged in the past two years.”

It adds that guests are looking for unexpected spaces as part of the trend and that its OMG! Category, which was unveiled last month as part of a wider update, has had 2.5 million clicks.

The update from the peer-to-peer platform included “Airbnb Categories,” organizing properties based on style, location or proximity to an activity, with 56 categories to choose from.