Source: people.hgtv.com
Chip and Joanna Gaines are not pleased with the things they are seeing on popular house and vacation rental sites, mainly because they are seeing houses featured on their hit HGTV show Fixer Upper.
The pair use their skills in construction, renovation and design to create beautiful homes in Waco, Texas, but now that they are all fixed up, many of those homes are being used as profitable vacation rentals. In a report by The Waco Tribune, nearly a dozen of the homes renovated by the Chip and Joanna and featured on Fixer Upper are currently listed on sites such as Airbnb and VRBO, and the pair are not happy at all because they never intended the homes to be used that way and are now looking into changing the application process for upcoming seasons of the show.
Brock Murphy, the spokesperson of the couple’s business, released a statement saying, “we are going to be more strict with our contracts involving ‘Fixer Upper’ clients moving forward.” He added, “We want to do remodels for clients’ homes. That’s the true intent of the show, and we want to ensure that does not get lost in this new vacation rental trend. What started off with perfectly understandable intentions could cast a shadow of a doubt of the much bigger picture, and we are going to do our best to protect that moving forward.”
The Waco Tribune also spoke to some of the homeowners now renting their homes and they stated they never intended to do so, but took the route after much “unwanted attention” from HGTV fans or a change in employment.