The owners of the Hobbit Mountain Hole are renaming their Airbnb after being contacted by a representative from Warner Bros. Entertainment. VANCOUVER

B.C. owners of Hobbit-themed Airbnb facing crackdown from Warner Bros.

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2021-05-22 04:30:04

The owners of the Hobbit Mountain Hole are renaming their Airbnb after being contacted by a representative from Warner Bros. Entertainment.

VANCOUVER -- The B.C. owners of a Hobbit-themed Airbnb have embarked on a quest to rename their rental property to avoid a losing battle with the dragon of intellectual property rights.

The Hobbit Mountain Hole run by Christine Le Comte and her husband was modelled after the hillside homes envisioned in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien – but there's been trouble in the Shire.

The couple was recently contacted by a representative from Warner Bros. Entertainment, who demanded that they stop using the company's trademarked terms.

"I didn't know that Hobbit is a protected word," Le Comte told CTV News. "I didn't think anything of it. Maybe I was a little bit ignorant."

The Airbnb is nestled on a secluded part of the couple's mountain ranch, about 30 minutes outside of Osoyoos. It was already built when they purchased the property last year, and Le Comte admitted she wasn't very familiar with The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings trilogy when they took over – but she quickly brought herself up to speed.