What was once home to a fraternity brotherhood is now open for parents, alumni and other visitors to stay during their time on campus.

The former home of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity has transformed into an Airbnb. Leslie Katherine Till and Matt Doyle, a couple who has worked with Airbnb for two years, are the co-hosts.

The fraternity still owns the building but decided to try out Airbnb for a year.

“Originally, the idea was to do this to see if they could pay their bills and not sell it so that potentially they could open another fraternal chapter here,” Till said.

There was already an offer from real estate to buy the house for over $1 million, but Brad LaPayne, president of the Phi Kappa Building Association, the caretaker organization for the AXP house, declined.

“Before they go ahead and sell it and that’s the end of it, they can just pay the bills and then the alumni still have a place to go back to for homecoming, and they can still do events here for the fraternity,” Doyle said.

After deciding to go the Airbnb route, LaPayne searched for a co-host. Till believes she was chosen because she is a natural hostess, was firm to him about what needed to be done and had the passion for it.

Till initially became involved with Airbnb by visiting places and staying at other Airbnbs. Soon, she realized it was something she could do too. Then, the couple opened up their home to visitors.

“My friends always tease me because any time someone is over, I am feeding them and decorating and I always have surprise parties for all of my friends even though I am a 30-year-old,” Till said. “I just love catering to people and giving people things, and making things and hosting.” 

When LaPayne chose Till to run the house, Doyle was part of the plan as well.

Till said the two of them were a package deal, with Doyle doing maintenance work. She said he got to work right away and began putting locks on doors, putting up blinds and moving things in the house around.

While Doyle is in charge of the house’s inner workings, Till is the face for guests.

“My job here is to communicate with guests, do the bookings, do all the internet stuff and I come once a week to do a deep clean,” Till said.

Another important member of the team that keeps this Airbnb running is Charlie Briggs, the live-in coordinator.

Briggs lives on the third floor of the house for free and helps make sure everything runs smoothly when Till or Doyle are not there.

“(Till) keeps me informed of what’s going on, and if anything goes terribly wrong, I am here to shut off the water or gas or whatever emergency measures need to be taken,” Briggs said.

Currently, there are eight rooms for rent and two more still under renovation. Each room has its own theme. One room Till calls the “cactus room,” because there are mini cacti adorning the windowsill of the room.

“My first thought when I walked in here was … I need to get some plants in here to make it a little more homey,” Till said. “I’m trying to reduce the frat vibe and make it a little bit more nice.”

Another room follows a unicorn theme, with colorful bedding, unicorn pictures on the wall and a tapestry coming soon.

Although the building has been majorly updated as an Airbnb, the house still maintains some of its older features. The library has yearbooks dating back decades and old telephone booths are still present, although they are currently used for storage.

The building has a very central location on campus, so it is already fully booked for big events, like Dads Weekend and Homecoming.

“There’s nothing like this on campus,” Till said. “We are getting requests left and right.”

While anyone can stay at the Airbnb, preferential booking is given to alumni of the fraternity.

Since the Airbnb opened the past month, Till saw a visiting AXP member from the chapter’s first graduating class. She said it was really nice to see him walking around the house.

The place holds great promise for alumni gatherings since the entire house can be rented out for $550 a night.  

The house has a plethora of large spaces for gatherings, including a banquet room, living room and a room on the third floor that Till said is particularly promising.

“Eventually, we are going to clean out this room, redo the floors and rent out this space if someone wants to have a yoga class, or meditation, or like a dance studio,” Till said. “I think this is a really good space, and we could be doing something pretty cool with that.”

With Homecoming and Dads Weekend just around the corner, Till and Doyle are focused on finishing up two more rooms that will be ready just in time for these big campus events.

There have already been people interested in renting out the entire space.

“We have had a couple of inquiries so far, and I think we have one group of alumni that booked to have a reunion and they are going to have a little party here,” Till said. “It’s a perfect place for people getting together and meeting up at a central location.”

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