How This Airbnb Near Big Basin Keeps Bringing In Guests

Here’s what they learned: It helps when your Airbnb is a destination in its own right.

Peter and Ann met when they both worked for the same school district in Salinas. He was a speech therapist and she taught several subjects, including Japanese. Peter had never been to Japan, but a few years after their marriage, the couple and their four children met in Tokyo after one of Ann’s student trips.

“It was [Peter’s] first time in Japan,” says Ann. “That’s one of the things that made him special.”

Ann is half-Japanese and spent her childhood in California and Japan before going to college in Tokyo. Although most of his relatives on his mother’s side reside in the capital of Japan, one lives in the countryside. They traveled there and stayed at an inn with hot springs, a Japanese bath, and unparalleled hospitality.

“It was just an amazing trip,” says Peter.

In 2012, the couple purchased a mountain home in Boulder Creek. There was a shabby 300 square foot basement with a very odd feature: in the middle of the living room, a trapdoor opened into a small rectangular cavern. His previous purpose may have been to collect excess water or repair cars, but Peter – who had returned to Japan several times – saw a new possibility: a kotatsu.

A kotatsu is a low table with a blanket on top and a heated space below. It is the centerpiece of any traditional Japanese home, and especially popular in winter.

“I couldn’t see it,” Ann laughs. She imagined a more American-style basement with bean bag chairs. Peter persisted, eventually convincing Ann that they should look for a contractor specializing in Japanese design. They found one in Karl Bareis, a logging company owner who apprenticed with a carpenter in Japan.

Bareis showed the Jordans his inventory, a large number of pieces of wood from Japan, collected in what he called a library, because each one had a story. It also had a hinoki ofuro, a wooden tub, and four shoji doors – sliding partitions with translucent leaves on a lattice frame.

At the start of the work, Peter meticulously documented each step of the process with a blog. With each piece put in place, new ideas emerged. The project turned into something much bigger than originally planned, much like the Winchester Mystery House, the Jordans like to say. They went way over budget. But by the time 2016 rolled around, they had created an authentic Japanese living space in the middle of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“Almost every aspect of the Japanese apartment – ​​the floors, the walls, the ceiling, the features, the building materials, the dimensions, the accents – is Japanese,” Peter wrote in his blog.

They decided to name the place Komorebisansou after a Japanese word meaning sunlight filtering through trees, for which there is no equivalent in any other language.

The guests showed up right away. Peter and Ann greeted them in the genkan, an entrance where shoes must be removed, and walked them around the space introducing them to the unusual features of the house, for example, the futons they slept on and the Japanese toilets . The couple then served tea in the meditation garden, a calming space where both bamboo and a redwood tree stand.

In a guestbook, many visitors described the stay as their best Airbnb experience ever. An Aug. 2 review is the first to hint at ongoing 2020 struggles beyond the walls of the Japanese apartment. “At that time, an escape was necessary, and I felt that, for a brief moment, we were back in Japan,” it read.

When the pandemic began, the Jordans shut down Airbnb in accordance with state regulations. And even when they were allowed to reopen, they kept bookings to a minimum. They had always done the cleaning themselves to make sure the wood and tatami mats were properly maintained, so there was no change there. Demand has remained high, even though the clientele has changed.

“A lot of people see this as a mini-vacation,” Ann says. “They see our list and think it’s as close to Japan as possible.” Many of them also made trips to Big Basin Redwoods, but that all changed in mid-August.

After the fire, Ann and Peter had to wait two weeks before returning to Boulder Creek and finding out the fate of the Airbnb. To emotionally prepare for the loss, they assumed she was gone. Upon entering, they saw that a neighbor’s house had burned down, along with two houses across the street, a carport and a few cars. There were many charred redwoods around. But they found their house still standing – even the bamboo was intact. It looked like someone had been watching over them.

“This was once covered in ivy,” Peter said, pointing to an area just beyond the garden fence. “But they made this break here which stopped the flames from coming.”

After a bit of cleanup, the Jordans reposted their Airbnb listing. And despite Big Basin having been closed for a year, the space booked itself right away.

It turned out that some people were just looking for an interesting new place to relax and work. And they could still go to Santa Cruz beach. “It’s the destination, rather than just a stopover to get to the park,” says Ann.

Bookings continued to flow and product was continually flowing to Wasshoi Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by the Jordans to fund student travel to Japan. This year’s trip was canceled, but the Jordans were able to receive a refund and will use the money for the next one whenever it happens. The program is part of an educational legacy that began with Ann’s mother, who developed a Japanese curriculum in Salinas that was later adopted by five district high schools and became a model for the nation.

Every aspect of the Jordans project is a nod to history and culture, to inclusivity and family. Perhaps the most touching detail is a framed wedding photo of Ann’s grandparents that hangs in the reception hall. They had come to California on a ship from Japan in the late 1950s to live with Ann’s family in Monterey, but discriminatory immigration quotas targeting Asians prevented them from staying permanently.

“It’s normal that this photo is there,” says Ann. “Because my grandparents really loved California.”

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