Picture this: you run a colourful, second-hand bookshop —humble, down-to-earth, cosy— with shelves stocked full of titles you have selected.
The shop is a cherished addition to the local high street, thanks in part to your calendar of events: poetry nights, wine and cheese evenings, author Q&As.
There’s not big money in selling books, of course, but you do it for the love of it. You live in the apartment upstairs, or across the road. Maybe one day Julia Roberts comes in.
Running a bookshop is a well-charted fantasy. Think Notting Hill, 84 Charing Cross Road, Black Books. And for the last decade, an Airbnb in Wigtown, Scotland, has been offering guests the opportunity to indulge this desire by running a second-hand bookshop and staying in the one-bedroom apartment above it.
“A phenomenal number of people seem to have that dream, says Anne Barclay, who is Communities Director for the Wigtown Festival Company and manages the Airbnb.
“There are people who have worked in literature for a lifetime, but equally people who just have a love of literature and have aways dreamed of running their own bookshop.”
Wigtown, on the Galloway coast, was made Scotland’s National Book Town in 1998 and crowned the country’s most creative small town in 2012, with 14 independent bookshops and an annual literary festival held in the autumn. The Open Book is in heart of the town’s high street.
In 2014, the property was purchased by local couple Rosemary and David Bythell, who used leftover funding from the 2012 award to run a kind of residency, whereby creatives could stay in the apartment and run the bookshop for two weeks while working on their practice.
The project ran for around six months, until funding ran out, with artists, musicians and writers coming to stay. “The idea for a bookshop holiday experience was born from that – to continue to rent the property and encourage people to come and stay,” explains Barclay.
Nowadays, guests can rent the apartment for between six and 14 days (it costs X per night), and are given free reign with the bookshop below. The money generated from the project supports the Wigtown Book Festival and its charitable activities, like events for children and young people.
As well as overseeing the day-to-day management of the Airbnb, Barclay and her team of volunteers handle some of the necessary —but less romantic— aspects of running the bookshop, such as ordering stock and managing deliveries.
“It’s a choice how much or how little people choose to do [while they’re here], and as a result of that, we don’t want to overwhelm them with lots of boxes of unpriced books to deal with – unless they want to.”
Guests are free to set their own opening hours, and can change window displays, price books (guidance is provided on this), re-categorise them and even run events.
“The only thing that we ask them not to do is redecorate, which has happened,” says Barclay. “They painted all the woodwork in the shop from a pale green to a dark brown.”
Guests have run events like bookmark making, quiz nights, karaoke and tea parties. Food and drinks events with a link to the guest’s own heritage —like a Missouri wine tasting— are popular, says Barclay, with many planning their events, posting items and circulating details in advance so that Barclay and her team can help to promote them.
“One of the promises that we made right back at the beginning was that we wouldn’t be under-pricing or undercutting the existing bookshops. The point was to add to the book town ecology, not to compete with the other booksellers,” she says.
“We also hope that [guests] will enjoy the local area while they’re here. We encourage them to go and explore, go and meet the other booksellers, visit the town’s shops, take time out to enjoy coffee and cake. It’s about the whole experience of being here in Wigtown, and not just having the doors open from nine to five.”
At first, uptake was patchy, and the project operated at a loss. But in 2016, Buzzfeed ran an article on the bookshop which went viral and, almost overnight, The Open Book was reserved for the next three years.
Now, the accommodation is fully booked for the next two years (as far in advance as Airbnb will allow), with a “notification list” where people can register their interest in case of cancellations.
“At the moment, if we were to try and get through everyone on the notifications list, it would take us about 119 years,” says Barclay.
Visitors are predominantly from overseas, and travel from all over the world to run The Open Book. “The wallpaper on one wall is a map, and we ask people to put a pin on the wall to see where they’ve come from,” Barclay explains. “There are literally pins all over the world.”
Some use the experience as an opportunity to indulge their bookseller fantasy, while others have gone on to open their own bookshops after staying, using it as a kind of trial-run.
Not only has the popularity of the initiative increased footfall and book sales in the shop, but it has given a boost to the town’s wider economy. “It takes it back to its original core purpose, which was to try and encourage more people to come to Wigtown, explore the town and support the book town ecology.”
This immersive tourist experience, where visitors form deeper connections with the town and its residents, means that many guests choose to come back after their stay.
One couple, says Barclay, returns every year to volunteer at the festival, while another, who were early adopters of The Open Book, have since relocated to Wigtown permanently.
“It’s an incredibly unique experience and it’s a fantastic way to experience Wigtown as Scotland’s National Book Town – but it would really be impossible without the volunteers who support it,” says Barclay.
Volunteers meet and greet the guests, and even provide local tours, while other booksellers offer advice. “It’s those sorts of interactions, the opportunity to meet local people and to become part of the community while they’re here that make it such a special experience – one that it would probably be difficult to replicate elsewhere,” she says.
“One of the things that’s really important for us is trying to encourage people who may never have the opportunity to stay at The Open Book to still come and explore Wigtown, because it’s got so much to offer. The Open Book is just one of the elements that captures people’s imaginations.”
