Wisconsin Airbnb looks like a giant wedge of Swiss cheese
Dozens of fluffy sheep, miles of hiking trails, a fishing stream and a 19-foot-tall piece of Swiss cheese that you can sleep inside.
You can see all this and more on the Highland property of Etienne White’s Cheese Wedge Cabin Airbnb — a 14x14, cheese-themed A-frame cabin about two hours west of Milwaukee.
The Airbnb just opened for guests in August after White brought the idea to life with funds she won in an Airbnb-sponsored contest last year. White also lives on the property, where she operates a working sheep farm.
“I have this crazy, 19-feet-high wedge of cheese because Wisconsin is the cheese capital of the U.S.,” she said. “We’re losing one dairy farm a day in Wisconsin, and we have been for years now. So, I wanted to do something ... to bring people out to farms and get them closer to the source of their food.”
While White is not a dairy farmer herself, her farm is home to grass-fed, free range sheep, which her Airbnb guests have the chance to interact with. Each night, White calls the sheep into the field with a clap, and guests are able to help with their care.
“We have apples on hand, and, if you hold an apple, some of the flock will come over and eat an apple from your hand,” White said. “And obviously, during lambing in the spring ... you can hug a little lamb.”
Visitors can access Black Hawk Lake from White’s property via a network of Black Hawk Recreation Area woodland trails. The property is also home to Class II trout fishing streams. One of her goals with the Airbnb, White said, is to give guests opportunities to reconnect with nature.
“We say, ‘I’m going to go on a hike this weekend,’ or ‘I’m gonna go get my nature fix camping this weekend,’” she said. “Nature shouldn’t be something where we have to ‘go over there’ to experience it when it’s all around us.”
Guests can even connect with nature from inside the cabin.
“There’s a wall of windows on one side (of the cabin), and there aren’t any curtains,” White said. “So, if there’s thunder and lightning at night, you’re seeing the thunderstorm. If there’s sun coming up in the morning, it’s coming right in.”
How did the Cheese Wedge Cabin come to be?
Last summer, White was lying in bed with a broken foot when she came across a social media ad. The ad invited existing and aspiring Airbnb hosts to pitch their wackiest, unique Airbnb idea for a chance to win one of 100 $100,000 prizes, White said.
“There are lots of different categories on Airbnb, like beach places and treehouses, ... but one category is called ‘OMG,’ and they have experienced significant growth in it and were looking to add more properties,” White said. Within the OMG category, “you can stay in a flying saucer. There’s a massive shoe you can stay in based on that nursery rhyme of the woman . ... There’s all kinds of crazy, zany things, and I guess they wanted more.”
With her experience as a writer and in marketing, White — who already owned an Airbnb cottage in Mineral Point — said it wasn’t hard to write the necessary 500 words needed to pitch her OMG idea to Airbnb.
She filled out the application one night last summer around 3 a.m. Then, she said, she went to sleep and “honestly completely forgot about it.” So, when she received an email that her idea had made it through to the next round of the contest, it came as a surprise.
“About two weeks later, I got this email, and the title said in capital letters ‘OMG Airbnb,’ and I honestly thought there was something wrong with my first Airbnb cottage that I hadn’t realized,” she said.
In the next round, with the help of a graphic designer friend, White presented her cheese cabin idea to Airbnb. She said brainstorming the idea helped her pass the time while still bedridden with her broken foot.
“I almost didn’t mind if it didn’t happen because spending the time imagining something fun was a good use of time for me, and it lifted my spirits,” she recalled.
Ultimately through, White was one of the 100 applicants to receive Airbnb’s $100,000 prize.
Originally, she’d wanted to build three small cabins, each named after a local cheese and highlighting a local cheesemaker. However, the money ended up not being enough to bring that idea to life, especially because she had to spend $40,000 updating her driveway so that emergency vehicles could reach the Airbnb if needed.
When building the cabin, White said, she was proud to be able to use almost 100% of the funding she received from Airbnb to support local businesses.
The cabin was built by the Cottage Works, a family business from Monroe, and its Swiss cheese “holes” were painted on by Mineral Point High School art teacher Mike Hadfield.
How can I stay in the Cheese Wedge Cabin Airbnb?
You can stay at the cabin for $214 per night. Reserve your stay on the Airbnb website.
The cabin does not have WiFi or water, and has solar-powered electricity.
In the main farmhouse, about 300 feet from the cabin, guests have access to their own private bathroom and kitchen area.