Titanic-themed Airbnb host says it’s a great stay for couples

• A Titanic-themed Airbnb in Northern Ireland is available to rent for £200, or around $270, a night.
• Guests are treated to ambient sounds of the ocean, a full-size lifeboat couch, and a “kissing deck.”
• The owner says he didn’t want to focus on the tragedy, but on the dreams of the people aboard the Titanic.

The owner of a immersive Titanic-themed vacation rental with a three-meter-long boat-style bed and a “kissing bridge”, it is the ideal place for couples in love looking for an escape.

David Kinsella, Irish director and mastermind behind the house, told Insider it took two and a half years to complete the Titanic-inspired home that he likens to a “little Walt Disney World” for adults.

The Airbnb is located in Belfast, near the Harland & Wolff shipyard where the original Titanic was built in 1909 and where it finally embarked on its ill-fated transatlantic voyage in 1912. While the real voyage ended in tragedy and the loss of more than 1,500 livesKinsella said his “fantasy world” reimagines travel as if it had been a success.

David Kinsella/Airbnb

“Rather than looking at the negative side of things, I decided to fulfill the dreams of people who were going on the Titanic,” he said.

Kinsella said the house is available to book on Airbnb and Booking.com for around £200, or $271, per night and can sleep up to five people in three bedrooms.

The “third class bedroom” has walls depicting people working on scaffolding and skyscrapers in Manhattan, jobs the owner said many aboard the Titanic would have had had the ship not sunk.

Meanwhile, another bedroom in the house is furnished with a handmade three-meter Titanic-style wooden bed. “You’re actually sleeping on the Titanic,” Kinsella said.

David Kinsella/Airbnb

The third dorm is known as the “Rose” room, named after Kate Winslet’s character in the 1998 James Cameron-directed film.

“The room has a 360-degree view of the movie’s dance scene,” Kinsella said. The painting of the bedroom, which also includes a bed “floating on the ocean”, took about 14 months.

Downstairs, the galley is decorated to depict the actual sinking of the ship as well as the SS Californian, a ship that “sailed but did nothing” during the Titanic tragedy, according to Kinsella.

“There’s a life-size lifeboat and when you go in there you have the ambient sounds with the wind and the waves and the birds going 24 hours a day,” he said. The lifeboat doubles as a sofa where guests can sit and re-watch the movie.

David Kinsella/Airbnb

Outside on the “kissing deck” is where the house’s romance really shines, Kinsella said. “It’s like a deck on the Titanic but it’s painted 360 degrees of first, second and third class couples all kissing,” he added. “All thinking how wonderful it is to leave Ireland, Cork, on our way to New York.”

The guests he hosted in the house “want to experience the voyage on the Titanic in New York,” Kinsella said. While COVID-19 has made it difficult for guests to visit over the past two years, he said his fantasy world has proven to be a success so far.

“I always fly these romantic couples in to stay in my romantic world,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it and I’m making them to entertain people.”

David Kinsella/Airbnb

While Time Out’s take on the Titanic-themed house called it one of the “most dodgy lists” they’ve ever found, Kinsella said all of his work is always focused on the positive.

“If you look at the Titanic, why focus on the tragedy? Focus on why everyone wanted to be on the Titanic,” he said. “I’ve done it all my life. It’s so much harder to do something positive than to do something negative.”