If you’ve ever wanted to use Airbnb for a weekend away but you were concerned about charging your Tesla, there’s now a solution for your very specific problem. Luxury electric car manufacturer Tesla will be placing free charging stations at 30 “high-end” Airbnb places, Bloomberg reports.
The stations will be found in cities where Tesla cars are generally to be found, places like Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and Healdsburg, California. Tesla’s donated stations are meant to afford their customers are more “free” lifestyle, eliminating worry about battery power for simple things like getting away for a little while. The company plans to add more charging stations in the future, hoping to make the venture global.
The initiative’s slogan, “be free, go far,” does make it sound lovely. The website offers users a place to find Airbnb locales that have the stations to be sure availability is open.
Airbnb is now one of the most popular ways to book trips. The site is easy-to-use and offers a lot more options in terms of kinds of housing and prices than the standard hotel services. Companies like Airbnb are gaining in popularity because they eliminate the middle-man so effectively, giving the consumer more power over their choices.
As Quora says, “because of the perfect consumer-producer matching of supply and demand, platform businesses are gaining immense traction in our economy. This is why Uber and Airbnb are currently beating out the taxi and hotel industries. The producer spectrum becomes more diverse, so the consumers benefit.”
Tesla’s partnership with Airbnb seems a bit striking at first because customers who use the service typically do it for cheaper prices, so it’s unlikely they would be Tesla owners—but Airbnb does offer some truly beautiful, expansive places to visit, and any way to get to see them is worthwhile.
