Airbnb Experiences — Airbnb expands beyond rentals — now hosting Experiences

Woah, this is huge. The travel startup graveyard is full of P2P tours and activities providers, none of which managed to gain much traction - @couchsurfing probably comes closest, but it's far from mainstream. @axk does a good job of explaining why it's so hard in this analysis from @denschaal of @skift: “Margins are incredibly tight (just 10% in some cases) and the promiscuous behavior of guides in terms of working with multiple P2P marketplaces will prove very challenging,” Kremer says. “The amount of distribution volume required to make things work at those margins has no chance of materializing anytime soon." (from 2013) http://skift.com/2013/02/26/spec... But there's a clear desire for this and maybe AirBnb has the clout (and distribution) to finally make it work.

I haven't seen any press about this; so as far as I can tell, this is a Product Hunt Exclusive :) I got an email saying "You've travelled quite a bit on Airbnb, so I wanted to invite you to be one of the first experience hosts here in San Francisco. We're looking for amazing folks to share authentic San Francisco dinner parties, food and pub crawls, and brunch gatherings the week of December 1st. Whether it’s an intimate dinner at your house, a rosé brunch in the park, dinner and a bonfire at the beach, or a serendipitous excursion to your favorite pop-up in the Mission, every idea you share is a chance for a traveler to belong in San Francisco." This seems to be an attempt for Airbnb to expand beyond the rental listing space, to include other experiences such as gym classes and other personal experiences. It seems quite a genius move, that I hadn't really thought of to be honest.

Actually I stand corrected, it seems some experiences are live after all, and not just in San Francisco. Here's a shopping tour in Paris Airbnb experience https://www.airbnb.com/experienc... I can't find one place where all experiences are listed but if you type in https://www.airbnb.com/experienc... (and a number after /) you can see them. Can anyone find anything particularly cool or random that is offered!? :-)

AFAIK this is something Airbnb has been testing since 2014 in some locations like SF (http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16...). In Europe it also has a partnership with Trip4real, a travel experience startup from Barcelona, which shows up at the end of the Airbnb booking process (http://novobrief.com/trip4real-p...)

Fascinating, competes with "community food" category: EatWith, GrubWithUs, Feastly for sit-downs; Josephine, MenuNextDoor, MyTable for take-out... Anyone experience cooking hosts? How was the food? Should be able to activate a subset of their hosts which reduces S(upply)AC & up sell guests which reduces CAC, liberating margin for community!

I've been using Vayable.com for this for awhile. It's almost the exact what Airbnb is describing. Should be interesting!

Really hoping that they recruit people who can organize truly unique experiences (ie ones you wouldn't be able to arrange yourself unless you've lived there for a while). For example, I look at host organized experiences of Beijing (where I used to live) and they're all still quite 'touristy'. A truly unique experience would be something like live a day in the life of the average Beijinger. Take your group to a morning market, a morning stroll through a park (when a lot of retired people come out to do tai chi, dance, and sing), explore a maze of lesser known hutongs (I once randomly discovered a cat cafe tucked away in one), etc.

This comes at a perfect time. cc @suzywillow

Code Red for some startups.. :)

I am in Airbnb since spring and I enjoy the idea and the message behind it. I think if Airbnb will launche experiences it will ov ercome "The four seasons" by all criteria.,

Pros:

Great idea,hopefully for less money than "The four seasons"

Cons:

I hope none

Thanks for the shoutout @gillianim - More coverage here: http://www.tnooz.com/article/aft...

I am confused - havent they been doing this since quite some time? You always received an email after booking a flat "Things you can do" and those were activities provided by AirBnB users

Well played Airbnb! Love it

Great idea. Can't wait for international expansion! :)

Really interesting play by Airbnb. Competition for Vayable, WithLocals, EatWith etc it seems. It doesn't appear to be live yet though - there's no where you can browse experiences is there?

Props to Brian. If "Experiences" was also his idea. Hospitality Exchange, that is what it is.

Pros:

Airbnb is overall a great idea

Cons:

none

Went on one which was a photography session in Toronto with a professional photographer (with only 2 other "students". The host was very friendly, generous with his time, knowledgeable, and I learned a lot.

In cities, even in places you've lived your whole life, it's often really hard to find interesting activities. AirBnB experiences are presented in a beautiful UI from an already reliable web platform, and there's a lot to choose from. Makes a great gift idea too. Only thing is that they can be expensive.

Pros:

Curated experiences with verified reviews from verified users, friendly and generous hosts who aren't as focused on profit margins

Cons:

Expensive, may be limited options depending on location

Interesting! I wonder if they'll announce it 🤔

clever, but not new of course >> https://www.quora.com/What-compa...

I wonder what Mark Cuban thinks about this considering his recent Rent Like a Champion investment on Shark Tank?