In this article, Tour Operator Erik Hormann shares his 10 tips for selling tours on Airbnb Experiences. Erik was part of all three beta Airbnb Experiences tests before they launched the current iteration.
Erik has owned and operated several tour business, he currently operates Paso Robles Tour Company with his wife, Amy.
Erik’s tips for working with Airbnb Experiences:
- If you have been denied in the past, re-apply as many times as you can if what you are offering is different than what is currently there. If you are not then try making something that will.
- Airbnb does an amazing job of re-targeting folks coming to your area. Compared to TA, Viator, GYG people who book with the AirBNB trust them for recommendations since they are looking for a bespoke experience.
- While Airbnb does not give you the customers email, there is an easy way to get it. In the app, they allow you to SMS or call the customer. I always text every person after they book asking for their email to send local area recommendations. You now have their email to enter into your Rez Tech platform for future review and promotions.
- If you have an expensive tour, offer the barebones offering and then communicate an upsell for them in person. Ex. Let’s say you have a wine tour and typically its all-inclusive tastings for $150. List the experience at $99 on Airbnb and then upsell them via phone or in person.
- Do not use their booking widgets unless you like to sell your tours for 20% off on your website.
- Use the request features. This feature allows guests to request a tour when you’re not offering one.
- Enable the Private tour buyout options.
- Try to stick to one or two activity listings. If you have too many then you risk spreading the amount of reviews thin which makes it harder to bubble up to the top.
- Mix Airbnb guests with your regular guests. Airbnb frowns on this….. but an operator gotta do what an operator gotta do.
- Add your team and assistants. This allows you to have other guides as teammates for managing your account.
Asked on the Tourpreneur Facebook Group ‘My biggest hang-up with Airbnb Experiences is that they used to require (at least in the official terms) a single person lead the experience, and that person’s name and face appear on the listing.’
Erik confirms this is no longer the case and includes the screenshot above.
Action Steps
Apply to join Airbnb Experiences