Lets play the word association game.

I say cat, you say dog. I say hot, you say cold.

If I say Airbnb, you say…  Vacation Rental – am I right? Maybe. You probably didn’t say Experience Guide. But that’s another piece of the tourism pie that Airbnb has been getting into lately. Yet most people don’t seem to realise it. Most people don’t even know it exists.

I think the problem is the name – “Airbnb Experiences”. People hear it and think I’m talking about my experience as an Airbnb host. Or as a guest. Or not. Whatever.

But that’s not what Airbnb Experiences* are. In their own words, Airbnb Experiences are “excursions or other activities designed and led by local hosts. Hosts give guests unique access into places and communities”. I think that bit of hot waffle basically means that Airbnb Experiences are things like a guided tour or activity, such as a tour of the cobbled streets of Edinburgh, or a pasta making class in Rome.

My Airbnb Experience

I’ve been thinking about starting my own Airbnb Experience. I think it would be fun. I’m considering offering tours of a nature reserve near me, to go alligator watching. It’s teeming with ‘gators and all sorts of other weird and wonderful Florida wildlife. The whole place is the most vivid green. The trees are covered in Spanish moss which makes it even more atmospheric. Everyone I’ve taken there has loved it. It’s a really special place. The Florida real deal. And unless you are local you probably don’t know about it.

Here are some photos, just to wet your appetites:

Beautiful, isn’t it? I think it’s the perfect place for a nature adventure.

The Tour

My Airbnb Experience would be 2 hours long, for groups no larger than 4 or so. There’s really no limit to how big a group I could take, but I want the tour to be personal and close knit. We’d also scare the wildlife away with a larger group.

So, what am I offering? What’s my USP? I don’t own the nature reserve, so people could just show up by themselves and have a great time if they wanted. So I need to offer more. Here’s what I think I can offer to make my Airbnb Experience truly special:

1. Wildlife expertise
2. Story telling
3. A local’s insight

Wildlife Expertise

Sadly, I’m not a wildlife expert. I just like Florida’s wildlife. But I don’t think it’s as hard to become an ‘expert’ as people believe – you just need to know a bit more than your audience do. At least to be ‘expert’ enough to interest people and give them some deeper insight.

Here’s what I would do:

a) Learn some fascinating facts; and

b) Have a script – but make it natural.

Story Teller

If people are going to part with their hard earned money for an ‘Experience’ they damn well better be entertained. So I will tell stories. Be interesting. Engaging. Or at least I will try to be. Again, a well written and practiced script can make a huge difference. By script, I don’t mean memorise line by line what I will say – that would be flat and boring. But have key points and topics of interest to bring up along the way.

I will also take some props along. A pair of binoculars really helps when looking for wildlife. There are so many alligators in this nature reserve you don’t really need the binoculars for them as you will always spot them anyway, but the birds are also magnificent and it really helps you to get a good look at them. I would pick up a few of these old fashioned style binoculars cheaply on eBay and give a set to each guest to take on the walk. I love their aesthetics. They aren’t as good as the top of the range modern binoculars, but they are still nice to have and they are easy to use. They are really useful in immersing yourself in the nature, but also I think it adds a sense of theatrics to the event.

Speaking of theatrics, I might even buy one of these bad boys, which are available on amazon:

I think kids especially would like to see an alligator’s teeth up close. It’s a good way to explain the physiology of these incredible animals. It also adds a bit of drama.

Local Insight

This is a local spot, and I know it well. I know the good spots, where the big ‘gators are. The quiet spots, where other people skip past. The photogenic spots, where instagram snaps are practically guaranteed. Great care will be taken to choreograph the tour to maximise these spots.

Marketing

The hardest part (I imagine) will be marketing myself and my tours. Since hardly anyone really seems to know about Airbnb Experiences, people are unlikely to just stumble upon my tours. So here are some ideas I came up with:

1. Put flyers up in my Airbnb, and in friends’ and neighbours’ Airbnbs.
2. Try PayPerClick Advertising.
3. Give Facebook Advertising a go.
4. Share lots on Twitter.
5. Instagram the heck out of it.

And those might work.

But I’m not really doing any of that… I’m just going to open up some Saturdays on the Airbnb Experiences calendar and see if they get booked…

Pricing

Pricing this will be a little hard. It’s got to be worth my time to do it, but I don’t exactly expect to get rich from it. It’s not easily scalable but as this is just for fun that’s ok.  To be honest, it doesn’t strike me as a great money making scheme, but I love Florida’s wildlife and I would enjoy sharing it with other people.

I think I will set the price at around $25 per person for a two hour tour. With a group of 4 that’s $100 which is ok. We are in a very tourist heavy location. People on holidays tend to be willing to pay for such moments. Tips would also be a welcome extra.

Feedback please!

Would you enjoy this tour? Is it something you would pay for? How much? Would you recommend it to a friend? How could I improve my offering? It would really help me if you would let me know.

Join in

If I’ve wet your appetite and you want to come on a tour, you can sign up here soon.

If you’d rather run your own Airbnb Experience, the sign up process is really easy. You can sign up here*.

Thanks for reading.

PS. If you do set up an Airbnb Experience please share it in the comments below, I’d be really interested to see what you come up with.