A cable car normally gives you a few minutes with a mountain view. In Courchevel’s 2015 Airbnb promotion, the idea was to stretch that moment into an overnight stay, adding a bed and a small sitting area to a cabin high in the French Alps.
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The photographs belong to a one-off competition-era project, not a standing offer to book this room today. Contemporary reports described a special March 2015 stay for a small group. That historical context is essential to enjoying the design without mistaking the feature for a current accommodation listing.
Making a transport cabin feel like a room
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The interior uses familiar signals of comfort: curtains, soft bedding, pale furniture and a place to sit. Set inside the red cable car, those ordinary objects become the surprise. The windows remain the centre of attention, with the landscape taking the role of a constantly changing wall.
Look at how little is needed to suggest a bedroom. The project’s visual appeal comes from moving a domestic arrangement into an unexpected setting, rather than filling the cabin with elaborate decoration.
Keep the promotion separate from travel planning
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The old competition deadline, eligibility and special arrangements are part of the archive. They should not be used as present-day booking instructions. Nor should an elevation above sea level be confused with the distance between the cable car and the ground beneath it.
For a future trip, use Courchevel’s official visitor information to find current accommodation and lift arrangements. The archive photographs are a fun piece of Alpine design history on their own.
Compare the temporary room with the more permanent Refugi Lieptgas cabin, or explore the mountain-hotel setting of The Cambrian in Adelboden.
For a conventional alpine holiday base, explore the villages of Ski Arlberg and their official visitor information.
A promotional room suspended above the slopes
The Courchevel cable-car room was presented as an Airbnb competition experience. That context changes how the photographs should be read: this was a specially furnished cabin for a promotional stay, not evidence of a conventional hotel room that remains available to book. The original account described space for four people and a bathroom at the cable-car station rather than inside the cabin.
The design uses the existing windows as its strongest feature. Furniture creates a domestic foreground while the mountain panorama remains immediately outside, making the separation from an ordinary bedroom unmistakable. The playful house rules about ice and neighbours belong to the campaign’s tone. Preserving them as historical context is different from presenting the old invitation to enter as a current offer.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- Bored Panda
- An Ordinary Day In An Extraordinary Place – Aiguille Du Midi (3842m)
- 20 Stunning Pictures Of Lavender Fields In France
- Would You Dare Cross This Dangerous Highway In France? Many Try, Few Succeed.
- Airbnb promotional images via the original gallery
- Courchevel’s official visitor information
- Refugi Lieptgas cabin
- The Cambrian in Adelboden
- the villages of Ski Arlberg
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