Bilbo Baggins surely didn’t have to contend with lawyers as he lived out his days in Hobbiton – unlike the owner of a British Columbia Airbnb property who has been forced to change the name of her property – Hobbit Mountain Hole – after being threatened with a lawsuit.
Christina Le Comte figured she would pay tribute to the fantasy race of hobbits from JRR Tolkien’s classic “Lord of the Rings” when she bought the property as part of a larger purchase of a ranch in BC’s Thompson Okanagan area.
But she alleges Warner Bros., the entertainment company that distributed “The Hobbit” movie series, reached out last week threatening to launch a lawsuit if she didn’t change the name.
The property has now been renamed the Second Breakfast Hideaway, a nod to hobbits’ love of meals, and Le Comte hopes that is enough to dissuade the entertainment giant from pursuing legal action.
She says people rent the property to escape from the stress of day-to-day life.
“It really gives people a place to disconnect,” she said. “It’s not just people who come here who are huge ‘Lord of the Rings’ fans, it’s people who want to come and have an escape.”
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“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
– The Hobbit
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The house is built into the earth, much like the famous Bag End home in the film series (and novels), and features furniture and decorations inspired by the fantasy series.
The property sits on a ranch owned by Le Comte and her husband, with no one else around for several kilometres, which Le Comte says adds to the sense of escape. But she said once the threat of a lawsuit was found to be genuine, she knew she had to change the name of her rental property.
“There’s no way in the world I can take on these guys,” she said, adding that she will be reaching out to inform Warner Bros. of the name change.