This New York City vacation rental had everything: great views, easy access to Central Park—and the very exclusive address of 721 Fifth Avenue, which most people call Trump Tower.
As the New York Timesreports, guests paid $300 to $450 a night to stay in the same building as the first family. The listing has been available since at least September, but disappeared very recently after a Times reporter booked it for a stay in April.
“Welcome!! Looking forward to meeting you!” Wrote the host Lena Yelagina, who also asked the reporter not to tell building staff it was an Airbnb listing. She cancelled the booking upon discovering the guest was journalist.
That appeared to spell the end of a rare opportunity for random travelers to shack up for a few nights near the leader of the free world and his family. As the Times explained:
The listing represented an extraordinary opportunity in American history, one facilitated by both modern technology and a president with a large real estate portfolio: a chance for travelers to book a room in a building housing the president’s family — one of the most secure buildings in New York City, if not the world — with nothing more than the click of a mouse.
While Trump now spends most of his time at the White House, he has returned to his Fifth Avenue home numerous times. His wife, First Lady Melania Trump, and his youngest son, Barron, still live there full-time—at least for the near future.
The Trump Tower apartment can no longer be seen, but the Times shows a screenshot of the listing with a review:
Prior to its disappearance, the Trump Tower apartment earned glowing reviews from guests, who also described the experience as “surreal” and recounted hearing protesters on the sidewalks below, leading them to wonder if the President heard them too.
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The Airbnb guests of Trump Tower also faced scrutiny from the Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting the President from danger, including from a growing range of Internet-based cyber threats. The agency told the Times it is not the job of the Secret Service to determine who can go into a building, but rather to screen them for threats.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement is reportedly looking into whether the Trump Tower listing violated city laws, which forbid renting an apartment for less than thirty days.
So far, there have been no reports of Airbnb listings for Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate where Trump spends many weekends.