Air BNB Experiences are a bit of a departure from Air BNB’s original goal but continuing in the same spirit of travel and willingness to enjoy new things. Air BNB Experiences allow everyday people like you to host an activity or class about something they are passionate about for those excited to learn.
After you receive approval from Air BNB to host your experience, there are five main things you should keep in mind to make it successful:
- Give your guests food
- Get to know them a bit
- Play the expert
- Politely ask for a review
- Lower your price, if needed
Let’s learn a little more detail about creating your unforgettable experience and also how to start on the site itself.
Tips to Host an Air BNB
When you put your experience into action for your guests, you need to make sure you are treating them well. No matter if you are hosting goat yoga or a historical walking tour, it always helps to follow this advice:
Give Your Guests Food
It seems simple, but people love food. Giving them free food when they are not expecting it is undoubtedly a good way to start them off on their good side. There is no need to spend a ton of money here; you do not need to buy them a dinner. A snack or pastry will do.
If you can, try to buy something that really has local meaning, the staple dish of the town. That can be a good jumping off point for a historical reference. For example, if you were hosting a tour of Diamond, Missouri, you can give your guests some peanut butter and say something like:
“Well everybody loves peanut butter. You know who perfected the version of peanut butter we know and love today? George Washington Carver, who was born in this town.”
Peanut butter is great. But remember, sometimes the food itself is the historical lesson, especially if it is not well known outside our community.
Source: Live Science
Get to Know Your Guests
No matter what experience you are providing, every iteration should not be exactly the same. You are not a machine, so do not give them information they could have just read online. Talk to your guests. Ask them questions about their interests, and then bring up related points. Often asking them where they are from is the easiest way to start
Play the Expert
“Playing” does not mean lying. If you are not sure of a particular detail, it is okay to admit so. But obviously this should not happen very often. Guests are coming to you to learn, so you are expected to really know your stuff.
Before your experience begins (or really before you apply to do it in the first place), fill in the gaps. Whatever you do not know, go and learn it. Do not just learn the boring dates and facts either; learn some fun or funny anecdotes that will keep your guests entertained.
Ask for a Review
One of the best ways for your experience to go to the front page of the Air BNB website, or at least out front in your genre, is a lot of positive reviews. You do not need to force it, just suggest it. Not everybody clamors to review things; most people:
- Forget
- Become too busy with the rest of the trip
- Do not even know you would like a review
So, when you are near the end of the experience, just politely drop a line requesting that if they liked it to give you five stars and write a review. Thank them.
Pay Attention to Your Price
Setting a price can be the trickiest part of hosting your Air BNB Experience. You want to make money, but you do not want to price out all your customers either. To figure out your price, first consider your costs. You need to be able to cover overhead expenses, first and foremost.
Where it becomes tougher is profit. Take a look at similar experiences happening in other cities so you can establish a comparable rate. Take a look at the best AirBnB experiences in the U.S. to help get a feel for how much you should be charging. Keep your price low at first. That will draw in initial guests, who can then recommend the experience to others. As your popularity grows, you can consider gradually raising those rates over time.
Source: Chiara Magi
How Do I Host an Air BNB Experience?
While more flexible than sites like Skillshare when it comes to hosts, you still need the need to be qualified and have something unique. Think about it from Air BNB’s perspective and that of potential clients. Do they really want everybody and anybody creating an experience? 30 people could be hosting the same thing in the same city, and not one of them could be qualified.
Hosts need credibility. Therefore, there is a process of approval before you can begin hosting. Pick something that you love and know a ton about and then work your way through the steps below:
Make sure it is a sustainable idea (if you want it to be)
- Specialize
- Receive approval
- Request adding your city if needed
- Create a unique profile
- Share around the web
Sustainability
Before you begin, you need to make sure your experience idea is going to work for the long haul if you want to keep the money flowing. Now, some of you may decide this will be a one-time thing, and that will certainly allow you more flexibility. You could rent your equipment instead of buy it, for instance.
But ideally you want to do this indefinitely. If that be the case, make a list of the supplies you need to determine overhead. If you are thinking of doing Segway tours, for instance, it helps to look up how much they cost. Are you really going to buy 20 new Segways when bicycles are much cheaper? Try to think of cheaper alternatives and multiple use items.
Specialize
Your idea must be unique to your city if you want to corner the market. Something wildly interesting with a local flare that nobody else is doing. If Air BNB Experiences is relatively new in your city, picking a topic should not be too bad. But specializing somewhere like New York City might prove difficult.
Browse current listings on the Air BNB Experiences homepage before you begin before you go through the trouble. If your experience is virtual, this research can and should take you a little more time.
(Find out more on how Air BNB Experiences work in this article!)
Receive Approval
Once you have your must-buy experience picked out with a plan to make it work, the next step is to submit your idea to the site. Real human beings examine every idea, which has its pros and cons:
- It might take a little longer to receive an answer
- If you are qualified and the idea is not already taken, there is a very high likelihood you will be approved.
- If you are not approved because of a small technicality, they will tell you why and give you a chance to reapply.
Request Your City
Assuredly if you live somewhere like New York City, you can move right on past this part. But if you are in a smaller town, Air BNB Experiences might not be operational there. If it is not listed, do not lose hope. If you reach out to them and explain why your city would be a good fit, there is a great chance they will add it to the site.
Create Your Profile
Once you are approved, there is a little more than creating your experience. You also need to sell it to people. To create a great landing page that will keep eyeballs and have people signing up, just try to answer the following questions:
- Why me and not somebody else? What is it about my knowledge that separates me from other hosts?
- What is it about this experience that will truly make it memorable and resonate with my guests?
- What is the hook? The one thing that finalizes the deal.
Share Around the Web
The Air BNB Experience websites, both for physical events and online, are great ways for people to explore new thrills. But you do not have to rely solely on them to funnel in new guests. Feel free to share your experience profile around the web on:
- YouTube
- Paid Advertising
Word of mouth, however, is always the best way to get the word out. So, make sure you are making a good impression with each and every guest.
Sources: The Verge
Is It Worth Being A Host on Air BNB?
Being a host of an Air BNB experience is certainly worth it. The nature of the job means you are doing something you love and enjoy, so it probably will not even feel like much of a job at all.
As far as financially, that can be a little harder to ascertain. If you price yourself right, you will definitely make at least a little profit provided your experiences are able to gather guests. Eventually you will be able increase your price and, with that, your profit margin.
How Much Do Air BNB Hosts Get?
But like many jobs in the ever growing “gig economy,” the price your client pays does not exactly match the money you receive. Air BNB Experiences takes a 20 percent cut of the money you make. So, if a guest pays you $100 for your experience, Air BNB keeps $20 and you receive the remaining $80.
That might sound high, but that is honestly average for most online freelance platforms. And remember, that platform is linked from the main Air BNB website, so people will head there after they book their stay. They will be looking for things to do, and your event will pop up. That is $80 you will receive a lot faster than just using your own website.
Speaking of pricing, note that most of the time your guest will have to pay a 3 percent transaction fee on top of the actual price tag. Plus, there is always the possibility that the guest tip an Air BNB host. So, keep that in mind when you are determining how much you will charge.
Source: Regiondo
Recap
Hosting an Air BNB Experience can change your life, giving you an incredible career in something you are truly passionate about. It should feel easy, but you still need to put in the work to earn your pay.
Remember, your guests are on vacation and want to have the time of their lives, so their enjoyment should come first. If you keep your focus on their needs, you will be successful.