Villa Wilen was built within 8 months in 2007/08. In front of it there was a romantic but outdated holiday home that had to be replaced by an ultra-modern new building. The architect of this heartfelt project was Urs Spirig from Widnau in eastern Switzerland - an uncle of my ex-wife Nicole. We designed the new house together in 2006/07 and lived there with our baby Shae (born 2007) until 2010. Unfortunately, our marriage came to an end, as life sometimes takes unexpected turns. Around the same time, I also lost my job, making it financially impossible to keep the house.
Fascinated by the concept and philosophy of Airbnb, I immediately registered as a host there. A few days later I got the first booking: a young couple from New York. Afterwards, more and more guests came by, including Nathan Blecharczyk, one of the three founders of Airbnb. I couldn't believe it! We still have friendly contacts today - we even met in San Francisco for my birthday in 2023. Another guest was the famous Israeli futurologist and bestselling author Yuval Harari.
In the meantime I met my partner Claudia. Together we strengthened the home and made continuous improvements to house and garden. Claudia, a former florist, works as a freelance set designer. My professional background is in marketing and market research. Our little family is completed by my daughter Shae and our cool black cat Mimi.
The young couple from New York lived in our former guest room, now the Garden Room. However, due to the rapid increase in bookings, we quickly realized that this single room would not last long. By adding two beds to the chillout room and then to our home theater, we expanded the stay at home to accommodate larger groups of guests.
In 2015, a former storage room was converted into the Suite's current bathroom. (Yes due to our constant improvements we could call our top floor a Suite. Until then, our guests took the elevator to the middle floor to use the Garden Room's guest bathroom. Pure Airbnb…
In spring 2019 we added the current guest kitchen, which was completed in August 2019. Up until this point, we were sharing our downstairs kitchen constantly with up to six Airbnb guests. We called it “our international residential community”. Somehow interesting but also stressful times.
In December of the same year we were able to realize our most beautiful project: the balcony in front of the Chillout Room, which was hardly usable due to the cold, heat and wind, was converted into the “Panorama Lounge”. This is now the most popular room of our guest stay!
Since 2011, we have welcomed around 1,500 groups (early 2025) of guests from countless countries around the world. Encounters, conversations and experiences that we never want to miss. By the way, we not only rent through Airbnb, but also through other rental platforms. Direct bookings are also possible via the contact page of this website. This way you benefit from better conditions.
We don't want to stand still. We are always open to inputs from our guests and try to put them into action as quickly as possible. We also plan to expand the house. This is done for private reasons and to make it even better for our guests.
