07 Jun Can You Make Money As An Airbnb Experience Guide?

When Airbnb first launched Trips back in 2016, a considerable question crossed the minds of many hosts around the world. Can you make money as an Airbnb experience guide?

With this new section of the company’s quest to forever expand to a full travel service, what exactly does this mean for hosts? After two years of testing is it still a viable form of income? What exactly do you need to become a guide?

Follow along as I break down the in’s and out’s of an Airbnb experience.

Starting From The Top

In the beginning, Airbnb only released the program to a handful of select cities. Since then, Airbnb is about to expand to 200 select cities. The company is putting over 5 million dollars towards this endeavor.

As an Airbnb host, being aware of where the company is flowing their money towards is vital to your success. What started out as a small endeavor is now rapidly growing into something much more.

Airbnb has even gone so far to say that they’re trying to do more than rent out homes. They’re trying to help people create rememberable experiences wherever they go.

So how is Airbnb going to accomplish this goal of expansion? Well, they’re going to need lots of hosts to jump on this boost of the initiative.

How To Qualify As An Airbnb Experience Guide

The first step, of course, is to have an experience to share with potential guests. The task can be anything from showing visitors around your hometown to teaching guests how to surf on the coast. If you think you have something unique and exciting to offer, you’re halfway towards success!

I personally love coffee, so when they finally launched it in my city; I tried to become an Airbnb experience host to tour local coffee spots and to offer a unique take on coffee tasting. The overall process was a bit rough because they really hadn’t thought it through yet (that was back in 2017, so I’m sure the process has gotten better).

When looking through applications, Airbnb likes to consider hosts that are empathetic, credible, knowledgeable about their activity and can be genuine about their overall experience with the potential guests.

Every experience needs to feel unique to a visitor, hold it’s own individual meaning. It’s kind of pointless if the guests can find your same expertise from someone elsewhere.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t put up a duplicate idea for your experience content. What it means, however, is that it is essential to add your own twist.

Take a long time planning out your experience, and when you add it to the website, try to add as much detail as possible. Treat it with just as much importance as you would your Airbnb listing. Pictures, wording, and everything about how you display your listing is vital.

Getting The Job And Making Money Flow

One thing that Airbnb spends a lot of time on is vetting their experiences. Quality control is a very high priority for the company, especially with the recent plans for expansion. Their current goal is to try and figure out what makes a host great on a global scale.

A variety of experiences are currently available for guests to enjoy, many of which involve a great few hour adventures often less than $100 a person.

With the varying number of activity types and interest, it’s unclear how much money a host would be able to make per month. However, with most gig economy jobs, your earning potential will change based on your effort, perseverance, and time.

A huge difference between hosting your home and an experience is your passion. Sometimes when you’re doing Airbnb Arbitrage, you may not even need to meet your guests in person. When you’re hosting an event, you need to be on your game, present, and ready to entertain.

With guests coming from all over the world, patience and empathy are essential. Mixing your natural charisma and ability for personal connections with your individual experience is what can make you the perfect candidate.

What Are Some Of The Most Successful Airbnb Experiences?

Across the world, the next big adventure is just around the corner. Being a tourist on your own and trying to discover a new location is exhausting. There’s just too much to do as an outsider.

Here are some of the most exciting and successful Airbnb experiences that I’ve come across. Study what makes these experiences success and think about how you can add to your own application.

As a fun note, based on Airbnb statistics, food and cooking events have been popular consistently throughout the world.

• Los Angeles, California – Take a hike up to the Hollywood sign. It allows for a fantastic view of the city.
• Paris, France – Get a tour from a comedian through the Louvre.
• Florence, Italy – Learn how to handmake pasta with an Italian family.
• Tokyo, Japan – Learn how to roll and create your own sushi.
• Sydney, Australia – Take a surfing class along the shore, then check out a great beachside restaurant.
• Toronto, Canada – Take a historic tour of Toronto’s distillery district.
• Lisbon, Portugal – Lisbon’s Best Flavors is a food and social tour raved by foodie bloggers.
• London, England – One of Britain’s best-kept secrets is a small concert treehouse. A small loft space in the heart of Shoreditch is transformed into a beautiful place to listen to classical piano music.
• New York City, New York – There are so many historical tours to take in the city that never sleeps. One of which takes through through the days of the prohibition to one of New York’s last standing speakeasies from the 1920’s.

Ready For An Adventure?

No matter where you live in the world, there is always an opportunity for adventure right around the corner. If you think you have the potential to make an incredible Airbnb experience for your guests, consider adding it to your business repertoire

If hosting an experience isn’t your thing, but you’re still hoping to learn more about Airbnb, come join my facebook community. We are a rapidly growing group that discusses and shares all of our newly cultivated information on all things related to Airbnb. This group is especially active for entrepreneurs that are looking to do Airbnb Arbitrage.

Bonus: check out my 121+ most profitable ideas that you can start from home.

If you have any questions about your Airbnb business, drop a line in our discussion posts. You never know what new connections you might gain until you stick yourself out there and network!