Have you heard of Airbnb Online Experiences? It’s a product you could offer your guests, providing you with another income stream while giving your guests a live, one-of-a-kind experience they won’t find anywhere else.
Airbnb Online Experiences are live, interactive sessions hosted on Zoom by experts and enthusiasts in their field. It was first introduced in 2016 as Trips, then later rebranded as Experiences.
At the time, Experiences were essentially tours held in person around the world. They offered one-of-a-kind activities designed and hosted by locals, usually in the form of workshops and demos teaching travelers the local culture. Sessions were immersive, allowing guests to interact with the hosts and observe their unique world face-to-face.
Fast-forward to 2020 and the Covid shutdowns, Airbnb decided to migrate the service online so that hosts could continue generating revenue,. At the same time, guests could still travel the world, albeit virtually, from the comforts of their homes.
According to the company, Airbnb Online Experiences also provided guests with much-needed entertainment, education, and socialization during the lockdown.
Just imagine, an Airbnb Experience guest can visit a wildlife conservation project in Cambodia, go on a virtual walk with the dogs of Chernobyl, or dive under the sea with a shark expert from South Africa.
They could opt to learn origami and Japanese culture, catch the northern lights in Norway, or do shadow puppetry and hand art forms from an expert in India.
If they want, they could even arrange private sessions tailored for small groups or special audiences – like work team building, family celebrations, group travelers, and people with disabilities.
Airbnb classifies the program under these categories:
But when guests navigate the Online Experiences homepage, they’ll see endless experiences listed under these titles:
To date, there are over 50,000 experiences available on Airbnb. These include the most remarkable activities like a neural enhancement experience, learning how to eat fire, and even DNA necklace crafting.
In general, the top categories over the past 2 years have been Food, Culture & History, Drink, and Wellness. Other trending categories include The Outdoors, Dance, Music, and Fitness & Recreation.
Online Experiences hosts earn an average of $10,000 per year.
Airbnb said that In 2020 and 2021, the program was its fastest-growing product. The company reported that 56% of its hosts were using online experiences to supplement their income in 2020.
But even before the Covid-19 crisis, Online Experiences was already growing at a rapid speed. Just a year after it launched in 2016, Airbnb said the product grew about 13 times faster than its rental property business. In 2019, CNBC reported that Online Experiences made $1 billion in the second quarter alone.
That’s not surprising. Globally, there’s been an increasing demand for authentic travel experiences. According to Booking.com, two-thirds (62%) of 20,500 global travelers it surveyed wanted to experience new cultures. Over half (51%) of them wanted to taste local delicacies, and a third (33%) wanted to meet new people while traveling.
Culinary tourism has been on the rise, too. Travelers are looking for unique cultural experiences in exotic places with a strong food culture. In 2018, TripAdvisor said cultural activities like cooking classes and food tours grew by 51% and 40%, respectively, in 2018.
That’s why Online Experiences like making authentic Argentine empanadas, Mexican street tacos, and pasta with Italian grandmas have been such a hit. And they still continue to be, in spite of travel being back to normal in many parts of the world.
With today’s economic climate, you might be looking for ways to generate more income. Adding an Airbnb Online Experience is a great idea. It could thrive and become a steady and vital part of your income flow in the months and years ahead.
A great many Experience hosts have succeeded in it. According to Forbes, some Experience hosts became instant success stories, with top earners generating over $20,000 in their first month. One particularly charismatic host and his team raked in $150,000. After a year on the platform, the most popular Experience hosts have hit a virtual jackpot, quite literally – earning close to $500,000.
In 2020, Airbnb found that more than half of past Online Experience guests planned to keep booking even after they resume in-person activities. The top reasons they gave were that Airbnb Online Experiences:
If you’re hosting on Airbnb’s short-term renting platform already, then you most likely have a license to operate your business already. You can sign up as an Experiences host and promote it to your existing guests as well as new ones all around the world.
Aside from providing an additional income stream, hosting experiences on Airbnb will help you expand your market and increase your credibility and brand awareness. According to the online tour booking platform Xola, guests that see your experience page affiliated with the Airbnb brand might feel more confident to book it than if they came across your virtual tour somewhere else.
Airbnb virtual experiences aren’t just for travelers. They also cater to students and anyone wanting to learn a new skill or looking for some form of live entertainment.
So ask yourself:
Consider a tour of your town or a nearby destination, but offer a different perspective of it.
Do like to cook? Set up a cooking demo of the best-tasting dish your locality is known for.
Keep in mind the type of guests that Airbnb Experiences tries to draw: travelers that want to live like locals and experience authenticity. They don’t want traditional, run-of-the-mill tours that they can easily book at a high-volume tour company.
The best Experiences are unique and offer something special from a local’s point of view.
Just remember that your activity needs to be:
Bear in mind that Online Experiences is a separate product from the short-term renting service of Airbnb. If you rent a property and decide to also host an Experience, you have to apply for that added feature.
After your application is approved and you start hosting, you will be charged a separate commission fee of 20%. The amount may seem high but it will account for Airbnb’s support and tools – including a free Zoom account for you to manage your hosting.
Also, note that if the Experience you’re considering will involve food, alcohol, and transportation, you may need to get a separate business license for it.
Learn more about the requirements specific to hosting an Airbnb Online Experience here and the general standards and requirements here.
Just as Airbnb allows anyone to turn their homes into veritable hotels, it also encourages folks like us to become virtual teachers and tour guides.
And many — hosts and guests alike — believe Online Experiences aren’t just a passing trend. It’s here to stay.
Virtual travel benefits a lot of people. It can help travelers prepare for a trip, enable those who can’t travel to visit folks and places around the world, and allows just about anyone to learn a new skill or hobby online.
Best of all, it gives hosts like us another chance to make more money on Airbnb.
Ready to learn how we built and operate a $2M/year short-term rental business, operate properties throughout the USA remotely, and acquired 70+ properties without owning any in just 2 years? Attend our free online master class to learn how you can do the same. Click here.
