In a wild mixture of game show glamor and marketing brilliance, Airbnb offers customers the possibility to spend the night in a Parisian museum, stay in homes mocked up to appear like movie sets, or sleep surrounded by eight Ferrari race cars.

These and other chimerical offers are a part of a recent, impressive campaign of the short-term rental giant, which wants to present itself as a company selling attractions, not only an alternative to staying in a hotel.

CEO Brian Chesky announced the 11 temporary listings – Airbnb calls them “icons” – at an event on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

The San Francisco-based company got here up with the thought for the promoting campaign after seeing the response to a Barbie-themed house in Malibu, California, that was displayed last 12 months in conjunction with the hit Mattel fashion doll film. The formula is identical: link the promotion to a popular culture product, celebrity or event.

And do not be boring.

“Historically, we are not known for doing anything. We are a platform,” Chesky said in an interview. “I think it’s really great to show what it looks like when suddenly you can step into our vision and our imagination. I think Airbnb will always be in the spotlight.”

Unlike typical properties listed on a rental platform, Airbnb practically gives away its “icons”. Chesky said the corporate will invite people to fill out a profile and explain why they need to be included in certainly one of the listings, and Airbnb will select about 4,000 winners over the course of the 12 months. He said winners will give you the option to book select properties or events without cost or for lower than $100.

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One exotic option is to stay overnight at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. Chesky said Airbnb recruited Mathieu Lehanneur – he designed the torch for this 12 months’s Paris Olympics – to convert the clock room atop the museum into a bedroom.

“The torch is with you in the bedroom, by the way,” Chesky said. “You have the entire museum to yourself. It’s literally a night at the museum. It’s even higher since you exit of the bedroom onto the terrace and have the very best seat within the house for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which is able to happen on the Seine.

For those preferring an American setting, Airbnb offers a detailed description of a home in New Mexico that is meant to appear like the one from the 2009 Pixar-Disney animated film “Up.” Chesky said Airbnb paid to construct the house from scratch and fasten 8,000 balloons to imitate the helium-filled ones that the film’s essential character uses to make the house fly.

The Airbnb version won’t fly, but Chesky said guests will give you the option to watch the crane lift the New Mexico home 50 feet above the bottom.

“I think we might not have them in the house when we pick it up, just for safety reasons,” he said.

Some of the offers will probably be one-off events, akin to an overnight stay at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Italy, an in-show performance by rapper Doja Cat, and an evening with comedian Kevin Hart in his members-only lounge. The “Up” house and New York mansion modeled after the one featured in Marvel’s “X-Men” comics will probably be available for 3 or 4 months. Prince’s Minneapolis home, which appeared within the movie “Purple Rain,” will probably be available for a 12 months, according to Airbnb.

The company would not say how much it spent acquiring the rights, decorating the properties and paying the celebrities involved. Airbnb earned $4.8 billion last 12 months and ended 2023 with nearly $6.9 billion in money. Enough to repeat the “icon” campaign.

“These 11 are a start,” Chesky said. “We have a lot more in the works.”

A Boston elementary school helps immigrant families change into a part of their community through an revolutionary program. She initiated the country’s first bilingual kindergarten program in Haitian Creole.

Toussaint L’Ouverture Bilingual Academy, named after the leader of the Haitian Revolution, not only strives to assist all students communicate with one another and the world, but additionally instills pride in its Haitian students. This is the first-ever solution for preschoolers, and its introduction corresponds to Boston’s large Haitian population and the third largest in the US. Placing him at Mattahunt Elementary School hopes to resolve language barriers when students first enter the classroom.

“Boston Public Schools and many community partners felt that Mattahunt would be the best location, especially in Mattapan, which has a large Haitian population,” explained Priscilla Joseph, teacher and founding father of the Academy at the varsity.

Joseph, herself a Haitian-American, understands that students deserve support and encouragement in their language, culture and history. The majority of the varsity’s students are black, and 97% discover as nonwhite. Of the 512 students, 132 study in the bilingual program. For teachers Academy serves this purpose not only learning, but additionally acceptance.

“I also grew up in a place where it wasn’t okay to say you were Haitian, and there was a lot of discrimination against Haitians,” she said. “So I kind of took my own experiences and brought them into the classroom, knowing what it’s like to be a little bit different or a little bit of an outcast because of your culture.”

The kindergarten also helps students, lots of whom are children of immigrants, as translators for relatives who don’t speak English. This training also extends to teaching staff, as some use Haitian Creole to assist parents participate in their kid’s education. The results of the program also resulted in improved test scores across the varsity.

The curriculum ensures that every one subjects, including the cultural component, include each languages ​​in the teachings. Despite the country’s current political state, Haitian students in Boston are learning to be pleased with their heritage. This mission destroys stereotypes and protects Haitian heritage and culture throughout the diaspora.

“We’re just getting them ready to take over,” Mattahunt director Walter Henderson said. “We’re also trying to make sure they understand that Haiti is a powerful nation.”

The Biden administration issued final rules Wednesday that require airlines to robotically pay cash refunds for things like delayed flights and higher disclose baggage or cancellation fees.

The Department of Transport said airlines would be required to provide automatic cash refunds inside days for canceled flights and “significant” delays.

Under current regulations, airlines determine how long a delay must last before refunds are triggered. The administration removes this leeway by defining a major delay as lasting a minimum of three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights.

Airlines will still be able to offer one other flight or travel credit as an alternative, but consumers will be able to decline the offer.

This rule will also apply to refunds for checked baggage if the bags is just not delivered inside 12 hours for domestic flights or 15-30 hours for international flights. It will also apply to seat selection or web connection fees if the airline doesn’t provide the service.

Complaints about refunds have skyrocketed in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic as airlines canceled flights, and even after they didn’t, many individuals didn’t feel protected sharing a plane cabin with other passengers.

Airlines for America, a trade group for large U.S. carriers, noted that the variety of refund complaints filed with the Department of Transportation has dropped sharply since mid-2020. A spokesman for the group said the airlines “offer a range of options – including fully refundable fares – to make air travel more accessible and help customers choose the tickets that best suit their needs.”

The group said the 11 largest U.S. airlines returned $43 billion to customers between 2020 and 2023.

The Department of Transportation has issued a separate rule requiring airlines and ticketing agents to disclose upfront fees for checked and carry-on baggage, and for cancellations or changes to reservations. On airline web sites, fees must be visible the primary time you see the worth and flight schedule.

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The rule will also oblige airlines to inform passengers that they’ve a guaranteed seat for which they do not need to pay extra, even though it doesn’t prohibit airlines from charging fees for choosing certain seats. Many airlines now charge extra for certain seats, including seats in exit rows and near the front of the cabin.

The agency said the rule would save consumers greater than $500 million a 12 months.

Airlines for America said its members “offer consumers transparency and choice” from the primary search.

The recent rules will apply for the following two years. They are a part of a broad administration attack on what President Joe Biden calls “junk fees.” Last week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced that his department would allow state officials in 15 states to help implement federal airline consumer protection laws.