Some addresses exist only in the collective imagination: Hogwarts School, 221B Baker Street, 1407 Graymalkin Lane in Salem Centre. Yet, in May 2024, Airbnb made the impossible real by transforming an imposing brick residence in New Castle, Westchester, into an X-Mansion faithful to every detail of the animated series X-Men ’97, broadcast on Disney+. The result stunned the international press and generated thousands of booking requests within hours.
An Ordinary Mansion Transformed into Xavier’s Institute
The property chosen by Airbnb is a vast mansion in New Castle, Westchester County, discreet from the road but spectacular once past its gates. It is upon arrival that visitors grasp the project’s scale: a nearly three-metre Sentinel head stands in the entrance driveway, planted on the lawn like a mutant war trophy. The production team mandated by Airbnb recruited artist Joshua Vides to orchestrate the interior transformation. For two weeks, Vides and his collaborators hand-painted every partition, every floorboard, every wall switch in a 2D graphic style with flat primary colours outlined in thick black, faithful to the aesthetic of the 1990s animated series and its 2024 revival. The bathrooms, the only untouched spaces, retain their three-dimensional appearance, creating a deliberately dizzying contrast.
The Tour: From Beast’s Lab to the Danger Room
Upon arrival at Bedford Hills station, the lucky chosen ones are picked up by an X-Men-themed van and driven to the Institute. The experience, supervised by actors scrupulously staying in character, follows a genuine mutant educational programme. In Beast’s Laboratory, guests prepare elixirs to activate their X-gene (carefully calibrated mocktails). In the War Room, Cerebro delivers its results: a questionnaire and the assignment of superpowers. The Danger Room, equipped with training gear and supervised by a professional stunt performer, allows guests to test their new abilities. Every drawer in every room hides character-specific sweets, from Wolverine’s treats to Pop Rocks in the areas dedicated to Beast. Gambit-style doughnuts are served at breakfast. The immersion leaves no room for the outside world.
The Rooms: Living as an X-Man
Four bedrooms accommodate up to eight occupants. Jubilee’s room offers a 1990s-themed lounge area with an arcade cabinet and a VHS player. Wolverine’s room is arranged around raw wood furniture, swords hung on the wall, and an alarm clock marked with three parallel claws. Beast’s Laboratory-bedroom doubles as a resting place. A fourth room, designated for new recruits, completes the setup. All the furniture, frames, and decorative objects have been designed or reworked in Joshua Vides’ 2D graphic style, making the boundary between fiction and reality structurally porous. Professor Xavier’s office, the uniform galleries, and the framed photograph of Scott and Jean in Logan’s room are all touches that delight the most discerning fans.
Access, Rates, and Status in 2026
The X-Mansion is not available for direct booking: it falls under Airbnb’s Icons category, designed as extraordinary experiences with limited availability and selection by lottery. During the two application windows opened in 2024 (May-June then July-August, coinciding with the cinematic release of Deadpool & Wolverine), the rate ranged from $39 to $97 per person for one night, largely symbolic fees considering the service provided. Requests poured in from across the United States and even from overseas. Currently, Airbnb has not announced any new booking sessions for 2025 or 2026; the informal waiting list made up of connected Airbnb profiles remains the best way not to miss a potential reopening. Nevertheless, the project has demonstrated that a fictional location, suitably anchored in a real territory, can generate tourism demand as intense as any listed monument.
The X-Men mansion speaks volumes about our era: the boundary between popular fiction and luxury travel is now simply a matter of creative will, scenographic production, and a lottery. Somewhere in New Castle, Westchester, behind a gate and a silent Sentinel head, Xavier’s Institute awaits its next mutants in training.
