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Meet a former potato factory worker who builds some of the world's craziest Airbnbs — from a jungle treehouse in Hawaii to a hobbit hole in Washington

  • Kristie Wolfe worked $13/hour factory jobs in Idaho for years while living in a "shed on wheels."
  • She used her savings to buy land in Hawaii off Craigslist for $8,000 and built a jungle treehouse.

Kristie Wolfe is the creator behind some of the world's most outlandish Airbnbs, from an underground hobbit hole in Washington to a hotel made from a six-ton concrete potato.

Her four listings cost between $200 and $400 a night and are fully booked multiple months to a year in advance. In an interview with Insider, Wolfe described her journey from making $13 an hour as a factory worker to becoming one of the most popular hosts on the Airbnb app.

Despite the 14-hour shifts and low wages, Wolfe speaks fondly of her time working at the potato factory in Boise, Idaho. In fact, she said the position was ranked second on her "dream jobs" list, behind librarian.

"There was a lot of problem-solving involved," she said. "I just love efficiency and figuring out new ways to make something work, and I got to do all of those things at that job."

Wolfe's passion for efficiency also dominated in her life outside of work, where she lived in a tiny home she described as a "shack on wheels."

Costing a total of $3,000, she built the mobile structure on a tree farm with her mother as an "experiment in minimalism," she told Insider. After realizing the lifestyle came naturally to her, Wolfe took it a step further and went entirely off the grid.

Without a mortgage or utilities to pay, Wolfe said she was able to cut the costs in her life to "nearly nothing" while saving money for her next big project: a solar-powered tree house in Hawaii.

See photos of Wolfe's four unique Airbnb stays here:

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