It’s 2021 and there are so many unusual, rewarding (and fun!) ways to make money. This newsletter explores them.
Edition #001: Hosting Experiences
Starting with something I know. I worked at Airbnb Experiences, hosted my own, and have host friends that make a living from it.
🤗 The Opportunity
Experiences are activities designed and led by locals. Basically: showing people your city, or your passion.
You could take people around your favourite neighbourhood, to your favourite bars, or teach them how to make your favourite local dish.
You design the Experience, put it on a platform like Airbnb or Viator, set your own price and schedule.
Guests can view and book. You make money from hosted Experiences.
Platforms review Experiences before they go live, to make sure they fit safety and quality standards, and take around 20% (but also drive most of the bookings).
🤷♂️ Why Consider It?
How many more decades of back-to-back zoom calls can you do!? 😱
Why not do something you like, that’s fun, meet people from around the world, and earn money at the same time?
🌟 Why Now?
Experiences are set to take off in 2021-22. As people emerge from covid - travel, meeting people, and having real-life ‘experiences’ will trend.
🤑 How Big?
You can make a living Hosting Experiences. From my time at Airbnb, I saw many hosts earning more than at most high-paying tech jobs. 6-figures and beyond:
A retired NYPD officer makes $1M+ a year hosting a Mafia Walking Tour
Drag Queens in Lisbon made $500k hosting Online Experiences
🤩 Inspiration
Glenn and Linton take people on Historic Pub Tours in London 🍻
Dean hosts Concerts on a Houseboat in Amsterdam 🎸
Aisha uncovers Secret Bars 🍸 and LGBTQ+ Venues 🏳️🌈
Profile
Ricardo, Experience Host, Mexico City
1. What do you do?
“I run Food and Drink Experiences in Mexico City, mostly through Airbnb. Before the pandemic I had 25 different Experiences, now ten.
My most booked Experiences are: Churros and Chocolate, Coffee Tasting and Night Tacos and Mezcal Crawl. I also host corporate groups for Online Coffee Tasting (currently the most-booked experience in the world on Airbnb).
I’m able to run these Experiences through co-hosting - I recruit, select and train passionate hosts for each Experience. The only Experience I still host myself is the in-person Coffee Tasting. I love starting my day like that.”
2. What was your motivation for starting down this path?
“Before Experiences I had a chain of specialty coffee shops in Mexico City, of which I still have one location.
In 2017 we had a huge earthquake in Mexico, and my coffee shops were in the most affected neighbourhoods. The army took control of the city, and I had to close the shops for months. That translated to a decline in sales of 90%. I was about to go bankrupt.
A friend told me about Airbnb Experiences and I launched my first (Coffee Tasting) to try to save my business.
It was life changing.
I was again in front of guests. I was creating something new. I had the intuition that I was part of shaping the future of the hospitality business. So I started shifting towards the Experiences (and transformation) economy.”
3. What are the benefits of Hosting Experiences?
“Definitely getting to work on things I am really passionate about. But deeper than that - for me an experience must deliver transformation. A person who starts one of my Experiences, shouldn’t be the same when they finish.
Being able to deliver transformations as my input to the world feels amazing! And meeting so many people from all over the world is incredibly enriching and fascinating.
I also believe in life, it’s “Not what we have, but what we experience, that constitutes our abundance” (my adaptation of an Epicurus quote)”
4. What does your typical day look like?
“I love creativity, but I also believe that you will only get there by having discipline and routines.
I set my alarm everyday for 5:50 am, but to be honest I’ve never heard it - I’m always awake by 5:30 am. I exercise from 6 to 7 am, come back to my apartment, have breakfast, do a 10-min meditation, shower, and look at the calendar to see all the Experiences we will be hosting that day.
I run the Coffee Tasting Experience everyday from 9 to 10:30 am. After that each day is a bit different, but I focus a lot on managing people - I follow-up with all the co-hosts. I go through the financial requirements for each Experience. I also love to read, and as a rule I spend at least 20 minutes a day reading.”
5. What advice would you have for people interested in Hosting Experiences?
Someone once asked me “What would you be doing if you didn’t have the expectation of earning money?”
My life has been so much better by consistently taking decisions based on that question. Somehow it always ends up bringing a lot of financial success too.
My final advice is: find that thing you love, that thing that makes your bones itch, and share it with the world!”
Check out all Ricardo’s Experiences, and follow him on Instagram.
🏁 How To Start
Try multiple Experience concepts. The best hosts I know try lots of ideas to find what works. Then double down on what gets booked.
Get inspired by others. Search for the most-booked and highest-rated Experiences. Look all over the world. But don’t copy, put your own spin.
Choose a category you’re passionate about. Anything can work. But if you’re looking for something that anyone can do, that I believe is set to take-off post-covid, then I’d go for nightlife! 😉
Title matters. Use something people might search for, that’s catchy and describes what you’ll do in a few words.
Keep the Experience short. 1.5 - 3.5 hours is the sweet spot.
Get good reviews ASAP. Invite your friends first, and get them to give you glowing reviews. This will lead to more (real) bookings.
Start with a (very) low price. I see too many people start with their ideal (high) price, then wonder why they get no bookings. I know one host who always starts his Experiences at $1, gets a bunch of 5-star reviews, which leads to more bookings, then slowly ups the price over time. Think of it as marketing expense.
Keep the group size small. Most platforms like Airbnb allow up to 10 guests, But I’d start with 4-6. Connection is key.
Host on a regular cadence. Show up more in searches, and get more bookings.
To scale: host yourself first, refine the concept. Then find passionate co-hosts (like Ricardo does). I know one host who employs actors as co-hosts - they’re often looking for extra money, and they make entertaining hosts!
Be multi-platform. Start on one, then expand. Most successful hosts are on more than one platform.
Platforms: Airbnb, Booking.com, Get Your Guide, Viator, With Locals
A trend I noticed doing research for this post, is that a number of top hosts have their own websites to book their Experiences directly (and cut out the platform’s fees)
Market on Instagram. Build an audience of both travelers and locals. Increase your bookings.
Avoid Online Experiences. They had their time during covid. But people are desperate to get out in the real world now. I’ve heard from hosts that online experiences bookings are declining rapidly. Makes sense, who wants to spend more time on video calls!?
That’s it for this week. I hope you liked it, and learned something new, that you might be inspired to do!
Cheers,
Dan