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One of its most recent proposals are the so-called "Airbnb Experiences," which offer owners (or not) of vacation rentals the opportunity to arrange activities other than lodging and accommodation. There's no doubt that this is a niche with great economic potential, but if you've only ever been dedicated to offering your properties for short-term rent, you might have doubts: is it really for me?
An Airbnb experience is a recurring organized activity that is offered to Airbnb users by experts in different fields, such as cooking, sports, or history.
For example, an Airbnb experience might be a tour of your city's lesser-known monuments, a visit to a village restaurant where they make the best pizza/bread/risotto, etc., in the area, or a horseback riding tour through the historic center.
It is about offering participants an authentic experience and giving them the opportunity to immerse themselves in the local culture, thanks to those who are best equipped to do so: the local people.
Those who want to organize an Airbnb experience should know that, first of all, they must meet a number of requirements.
Host requirements
- Accepting payments and reservations only through Airbnb
Airbnb is very clear that all payments received must be made through the platform itself, and only people who have signed up through the platform can participate in activities.
- Clarify who offers the experience
One of the most important features of Airbnb Experiences is that they are offered by individuals. For this reason, it is very important that participants know who the person is who will arrange the experience: name, photo, qualifications...
If for any reason you do not organize Airbnb Experiences yourself, remember that you will need to register co-hosts on the platform for each activity for which they are responsible.
The goal is for experience participants to always know in advance who they will meet.
- Maintain a good average rating
Airbnb is quite demanding of experience hosts: hosts are expected to have a high average rating and a good level of participation from group members.
Specifically, Airbnb specifies that hosts who repeatedly receive 1- to 3-star ratings or who have few bookings or visits risk having their Experience terminated.
- Respect confirmed reservations
Airbnb tries to reduce the number of cancelled Experiences as much as possible, so the conditions under which an activity can be cancelled are quite limited.
For this reason, the platform only allows cancellation of Experiences due to force majeure, serious safety issues, or weather conditions that pose a danger to Experience participants.
- Verification of documentation through Evident ID
Some types of experiences require you to demonstrate that you have the necessary license and/or insurance to carry them out. In these cases, you must send these documents to Airbnb partner Evident ID for verification.
In addition to the rules for organizers, Airbnb experiences must meet a number of requirements:
- Accepts groups of any size
Airbnb does not allow you to set a minimum group size in the listing of your experience, so you must perform the activity even if you have received a reservation from only one person.
Although there are instances when it is possible to cancel an activity (due to force majeure or poor weather conditions), try to avoid doing so, as Airbnb reserves the right to close Experiences for this reason.
- Set an itinerary and stick to it
Although Airbnb allows small variations in the itineraries of your Experiences, open itineraries are generally not allowed. You should clearly and specifically define the locations where the activity you are offering will take place.
- Do not cross borders
All Airbnb Experiences must take place in a single country. This may seem like an easy requirement to meet, but be careful if you are organizing activities in border areas.
If you cross into the other country and something happens to one of the participants, you may have problems!
- Beware of prohibited activities
If you were thinking of arranging an experience involving firearms, sexual or political content, you should be careful. Although these activities are not strictly prohibited, Airbnb scrutinizes them more carefully than others.
Also, you will not be able to offer some outdoor activities: such as canyoning, shark diving, free climbing, kite surfing, bungee jumping or skydiving, among others, because they are considered too dangerous.
Now that you know the requirements for Airbnb to allow you to offer an experience, comes the moment of truth: how do you organize an experience?
The first step before hosting an experience on Airbnb is to create the listing you will use to promote it on the platform. To do this, you will need to provide some basic information:
- Title of the experience
- Description of the activity
- What does the experience include?
- What should participants bring?
- Location where the experience will take place
- Minimum age to participate
- Physical demand level
- Required skills (if any)
- Maximum number of participants (usually less than 10)
- Start time and duration (usually less than 3 hours)
- Price per person
- In addition, you must include a minimum of seven high-quality photos of the people participating in the experience you are offering
No host can host an Airbnb experience without first verifying their identity in some way. To do so, you will need to upload an image of your ID and a photo of yourself to the platform.
After you have provided all the information needed to create your Airbnb Experience and after the Airbnb team has verified your identity, you should submit your draft listing for review.
Airbnb will review it to make sure it meets the requirements described in the previous section. The process takes about a week, and once completed, you may receive four different responses:
o A successful experience
Congratulations! Your experience meets the requirements: you can now add available sessions to the calendar and begin accepting reservations.
o Experience rejected
The experience you submitted did not meet Airbnb's requirements and was therefore rejected. If you want to try again, you will have to repeat the process.
o Edit and resubmit
The experience you proposed is fine, but you made a mistake. Once you have corrected the error, you can resubmit the experience for review.
o Verification of license and insurance
Your experience involves an activity that requires you to have a specific license and/or insurance. You will need to submit these documents to Airbnb through our partner company Evident ID.
Great! Now you are ready to host Airbnb Experiences. Make sure participants have fun and start enjoying the extra income you'll start earning!
"What is the commission on Airbnb Experiences?"
Airbnb charges a 20% commission on the price of Experiences, which includes basic liability insurance and will be included in the price charged to participants. Each time a reservation is completed, Airbnb will automatically deduct its commission from the reservation amount.
So, Airbnb Experiences are a great opportunity to diversify your short-term rental business and offer added value to guests. It's true: the requirements are challenging, but depending on what you offer, it can really be worth it.
Think how much we believe in it ourselves: in our first Real Estate Boutique in Rome (on Viale Manzoni) we have a service dedicated to tourists who come to us looking for the perfect property for their stay and, as an additional service, can choose from a wide range of the experiences available on site to make their vacation unforgettable!
To make sure you're doing it right, ask us at RentalPro: our decades of experience in the short-stay rental industry will guarantee you great results, thanks to the professional management of hundreds of properties now proven and recognized throughout the international scene.
Don't hesitate to contact us - RentalPro's Property Managers are here to help you maximize your business!
RentalPro Team
