While the interior scenes of the iconic sitcom were filmed on a soundstage, the exterior shots were that of a real mansion in Los Angeles County, California. But the home wasn’t in Bel-Air like we were led to believe—the 6,438-square-feet mansion is actually located in another one of Los Angeles’s most affluent neighborhoods, Brentwood. The two-story home is both neoclassical and Colonial, boasting a perfectly symmetrical facade with four columns and triangular pediments over the windows. While the Banks’s house on the show is said to have 10 bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms, the real home has five bedrooms and five bathrooms. The value is currently $9 million, according to Veranda.
The Fresh Prince takes on Airbnb
Three decades after the show’s final episode, Will Smith brought the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air mansion back to life by teaming up with Airbnb. In 2020, fans were offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend a night living like the Banks family. Smith and Airbnb offered five one-night stays in the Brentwood mansion for just $30 per night, in honor of the show’s 30th anniversary, according to Realtor. The listing was written by Smith himself: “Ready for the freshest staycation ever? If this place looks familiar that’s because it’s just as fly as it was when I first rolled up the driveway. I’m back. And this time, I’m handing you the keys so you’ll have my wing of the mansion all to yourself—but my sneaker collection is off limits, aight?”
Rashi Gupta, an experiential designer from San Francisco, was one of the lucky few who got to stay in the Airbnb. After years of watching the iconic show on Nick at Nite and hearing about the experience online, it was a no-brainer to book a night at the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air mansion. “I am one of those people who loves to be plugged into events and experiences in my city,” Gupta tells AD. “I logged into my Airbnb account and saw they were going to open the booking at a certain date and time. I put a reminder on my phone.” Unlike a lot of majorly hyped up pop culture events of the past few years, booking the Airbnb was a breeze. “The website didn’t crash, there was no online queue or anything. It was pretty seamless,” Gupta tells AD.