Note: In April 2023, Airbnb paused onboarding new Airbnb Experiences.

You’ve probably heard of Airbnb Experiences. These are various activities offered by hosts or private individuals. Now it’s your turn! In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know to create a unique Airbnb experience and offer your visitors an extraordinary moment!

What is Airbnb Experiences?

Airbnb has been offering Airbnb Experiences for a few years now. The idea: to give visitors and travelers an unusual discovery at their vacation spot. As a host, you can share your passion or knowledge about a topic with visitors and give them an unforgettable experience. Discoveries on Airbnb are very diverse: from a photo shoot, to an introduction to electronic music, to sharing a family recipe – there’s something for everyone!

Who can offer an Airbnb Experience?

The events, which focus on sharing experiences, are led by Airbnb hosts or even locals who don’t rent through Airbnb. Airbnb Experiences allow you to bring local experts to the forefront while growing your rental business. You share your interests and passion for a topic with an interested audience.

Increase your income with Airbnb Experiences

With Airbnb Experiences, you can also increase your income. The activities can be a lucrative additional income in conjunction with renting out your vacation home and offer you good cross-selling opportunities. You can also offer your discoveries to Airbnb guests who are not staying at your accommodation and vice versa. The two activities complement each other perfectly, but can also be done independently.

Tip: As a Smoobu user, you can make your guests aware of your additional services using your Digital Guest Guide.

What types of discoveries can I offer on Airbnb?

You have the option to offer discoveries depending on your personal interests and expertise. You can freely design your own event from A to Z and share your passion with your visitors. You can roughly orient yourself on the following different types of discoveries:

Culture and history (personal city tours, visiting a museum together or photography tours, etc.)
Charitable discoveries (show your social commitment and introduce a non-profit organization; donate all proceeds)
Culinary and gastronomic discoveries (restaurant visits, discovering local specialties, cooking workshops, etc.)
Local experiences: Share your knowledge of your city or region

The possibilities for Airbnb Experiences are as limitless as your imagination. Share your knowledge and experiences and offer your guests an extraordinary experience.

How can I create an Airbnb Experience?

First of all, you should know that every idea for an activity is evaluated by a small team at Airbnb. If your proposal meets the quality criteria, you can start creating your own experience.

Step 1: Create your activity on Airbnb

Go to the Airbnb Experiences page.

Step 2: Specify the type of activity

In this step, you can set whether you want to offer your experience on-site (traditional experiences) or online via Zoom (online discoveries). Airbnb will then ask you where you’re offering your experience (i.e. in which city) and in which language it’s available. You then select a category where your experience fits: Animals, Art and Design, Nature and Outdoors, Entertainment, etc. Once you select a theme, more detailed suggestions will be provided to describe your experience as accurately as possible.

Step 3: Airbnb’s requirements

Before starting your activity, you must meet the following Airbnb criteria:

Expertise: you have exceptional expertise and years of experience.
Insider Knowledge: You offer your guests an experience they wouldn’t have access to on their own.
Interpersonal Connection: You have the ability to inspire others and build rapport with your guests.

After that, you’ll be asked to answer three questions about the above. The idea is to offer a truly new and special experience that is only possible with your knowledge and personality.

Step 4: Create a catchy description of your activity

Description of the experiernce

In this step, you reveal more details about your experience on Airbnb to appeal to potential customers:

Describe exactly how your activity will take place
Indicate the duration of the experience
Inform about the meeting point and the city locations (monuments, markets, bar, etc.)

About you

Next, you need to tell a little more about yourself in the “About You” section to introduce yourself to your prospective guests. Tell them more about your business as a landlord and host. Don’t forget to add a photo to your profile if you haven’t uploaded one yet.

Location

Indicate here where your Experience will take place

What is provided

Indicate what you are providing in your experiment or if you have hired an outside company. If you are providing a creative activity, you might want to provide the materials: paints, brushes, canvases, etc.

What guests should bring

Specify here the equipment that visitors will need to bring to your Experience. For example, a rain jacket, sneakers or comfortable shoes if you want to go hiking, etc.

Conditions for the participants

Here you should specify the minimum age to participate in your experience, whether parents can bring small children, how challenging the experience is, if there are any prerequisites, etc.

Title and photos

Now think of a meaningful title that best describes your activity and makes you want to participate. For the photos, you should use a good quality camera to introduce your activity with some high quality pictures. Don’t be afraid to hire a photographer to take nice professional photos and show off your experience even better. You can also create and add a short video about your Experience.

Step 5: Set the settings

Maximum group size

A maximum of 10 people can form a public group (strangers or people coming together). For private groups, the maximum is 30 people. In this step, it’s important to set the maximum number of people who can participate in your Airbnb Experience So think about what number of participants is optimal for your activity.

General availability

Specify what time you would like to offer your Airbnb Experience. Then, you can freely set your time depending on the days you offer your experience.

Price per person

An important specification is the price per person. Set your price per participant, keeping in mind that Airbnb charges a 20% service fee. You also need to set the price for private groups in this step.

Discounts

Here you can offer discounts for bookings.

Booking settings

Here you can set up to what time guests can book your activity. Airbnb suggests setting the booking limit as close as possible to the time of the experience to get as many bookings as possible. It also allows for spontaneous bookings.

Cancellation policy

Set your terms for cancellations and a full refund here.

Security

Read Airbnb’s rules about safety and the additional Terms of Use for Experiences Hosts. Then click Accept if you agree.

Step 6: Submit proposal

That’s it, you can now read through your proposal again and submit it!

Conclusion: 5 reasons to offer Airbnb Experiences

Share a unique moment with your guests, offer them an unforgettable memory and strengthen interpersonal relationships
Introduce your visitors to an activity that you like or inspire them with a cause that is close to your heart
Create an additional source of revenue
Leverage the international reach of the booking platform to reach a new audience with your Airbnb Experience.
Promote your vacation rental and get even more bookings

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