This quaint hobbit home is available in the South Okanagan through AirBNB.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/AIRBNB
May 23, 2021 - 3:25 PM
The Okanagan homage to middle earth that doubles as a popular Airbnb spot officially has a new name.
It’s now the Second Breakfast Hideaway.
“And the h***** mountain hole is now a Second Breakfast Hideaway (I'm still full from the first one),” the AirBNB owners wrote in a May 22 post.
“Thank you to everyone who voted and to @arikanacres for the suggestion. I had a lot of fun with it, I hope you did too, and thanks to everyone for the coolest name suggestions and kind words and really totally overwhelming and unexpected support far and wide.”
The popular Airbnb named for its likeness to the housing in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of Rings books went on the hunt for a new name following a threat from Warner Bros. which owns the trademark to the word hobbit.
Christine Le Combe and her husband purchased the Halfling Hideaway, located roughly 30 minutes east of Osoyoos, last year and renamed it the Hobbit Mountain Hideaway. It's been a popular vacation destination since it opened in 2019.
Earlier this week, Le Combe was contacted by entertainment media company Warner Bros. and was told the word “hobbit” is trademarked and they asked her to take down the listing.
Instead she pivoted and asked her Instagram followers to vote on a new name.
“Having to get out of my comfort zone and engage with the community has been a good experience,” Le Combe said.
“I really didn’t think that somebody would copyright the word hobbit and then try to hunt a person down if they use the word hobbit because it’s not like I meant any harm. The hobbit house is an homage to the favourite book series of a lot of people.”
Nothing has been affected other than the name.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Kathy Michaels or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2021