What it’s become is hard to put in one category. DJ sets, retail drops, photoshoots, art shows, a full mobile wine bar for Good Boy & Friends that was one of the highlights of the event. Jason Yim and Bobby Avila call it a “mobile micro venue,” a blank canvas on four wheels. We sat down with them to talk about where the idea came from, their approach on collaborations, and what they want someone to feel the second they step up into Guest Bed.
Image courtesy of Guest Bed.
How did the idea for Guest Bed actually come together?
Jason: I'd wanted a kei truck for a while, and once I got one, Bobby asked if he could use it for an oyster pop-up. That was kind of the original idea.
Bobby: Food trucks and pop-up culture in LA have been growing for the last ten years, and we wanted to use the truck as a vessel for other people to activate whatever it is they're doing. We take the lead on curating what goes on it and building it out for different use cases, but the thing we're really selling is whoever we're working with. Coming up with that structure has been the fun part.
Image courtesy of Guest Bed.
Why a kei truck specifically? What made you go all in on that one?
Jason: Honestly, I'd been to Japan once and saw those trucks and thought, these are so utilitarian. I'd gotten into woodworking a few years before that, so I wanted something compact I could actually fit in a garage, and they're still pretty affordable on the used market. But the real thing is, at food festivals everybody's got the same cookie-cutter truck with a different wrap on it. This stands out. We can change the whole look and concept of it depending on what we're doing, and that's the fun part.
Bobby: They've historically been a utility truck in Japan, carpenters, farm workers, everyday use. They're everywhere there and hard to find here, so right now they're trending online. People either recognize it immediately or have never seen one in their life. Either way, it catches the eye.
How do you go about finding the right collaborations?
Jason: Mostly friends. Bobby's been in hospitality a long time so he's got a lot of connections there, but honestly we're both pretty well connected in our community. A lot of the time we'll do an event, and someone who was there will come up and say "I do this" or "I have this," and that's how it starts rolling. Sometimes we just cold-hit up our dream brands. We don't always hear back, but we keep it moving.
Bobby: It's word of mouth, people passing the concept to friends who have brands or run pop-ups. Sometimes we start with an idea and go find the people to make it real. Other times it's the reverse, we reach out to a brand first and figure out the rest from there.
Image courtesy of Guest Bed.
Tell us about the Good Boy & Friends activation, how did that one come to life?
Bobby: I've been friends with the Good Boy team for a while. I've worked in wine bars and shops for close to ten years, so I've made a lot of connections in that world. I'd been going to Good Boy & Friends for five years before I finally went to Eric and the team and said, we have this concept, we'd love to be part of it. It happened pretty naturally, they had a collab wine dropping that year and wanted to activate it, so we turned the truck into a mobile wine bar. It was a hit. People were talking about it for days after. It ended up being our actual launch event, and it was a great place to launch.
Image courtesy of Guest Bed.
What do you want someone to feel the moment they experience Guest Bed?
Bobby: We realized pretty early we're creating a new category, for pop-ups, activations, experiential marketing in general. Taking a concept and putting it on four wheels, taking it into the street instead of just a table and a tent. We call it a mobile micro venue: a movable space people can interact with in a lot of different ways. Guest Bed itself is a blank canvas for whatever someone wants to do with it.
Jason: I want people who stop by to think, "that's cool, I've never seen that before." Just being part of that conversation is really cool. And Bobby's so good from his hospitality background at talking to people, being personable. I'm the designer standing there like, don't talk to me.
Bobby: Jason's the visual mastermind of Guest Bed, full stop. He's got a background working with tech companies and clothing brands, so he's got a real backbone for building a brand. I'm mostly just there saying "that's sick."
Image courtesy of Guest Bed.
Was there a moment you looked around and thought, we actually have something here?
Bobby: It's happened a few times now, when people see the concept and say, "that's really smart," or tell us this thing has legs. Even just hearing that is huge, because it started as a fun idea we still wanted to take seriously from day one. We got the business license, the LLC, all of it, because we believed it was a strong concept. Having that reciprocated by other people gives us a lot of wind under our sails to keep staying persistent with it.
What's next:
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