Last year, I took my family to Cuba. It was great! We had a wonderful tour guide. We stayed in a posh AirBNB with an amazing view of the seawall and a panoramic view of the sea. The people were beautiful, kind, talented and intelligent. But what made the trip even more spectacular was the Airbnb Experiences that we signed up for.
What are Airbnb Experiences? It's classes, tours, and activities that traveler's signed up for that connect them with locals that provide new and different experiences outside the usual tourist hotspots. It's great, it's amazing, and it allows the locals to make money doing the thing that they love, the places only they know about, and the activities they were going to do anyway.
A good example of this. I signed my young adult children with an experienced called: Visit Cuba's Nightlife with Local Cubans. So basically, two Cuban women around the age of my children (early 20s) take people on a tour to 2-3 local clubs to safely enjoy local Cuban nightlife with people who know the area best. My kids had a blast and they got to know locals that made the experience even better.
My children's new friends told them that they were saving up to purchase a car and that this was the way they were funding their dream purchase. They knew the best places to go dancing, hear the best music and enjoy fun people . . . why not invite visitors/tourists along? More friends, more fun! It was something they were doing every weekend anyway, why not profit from it?
When I heard this, instantly a light went on in my head. As you know from my article: Money is Everywhere, I'm always finding opportunities around me that make money. And here is one that fell into my lap while I was taking a vacation - micro-experiences!
Earn quick money by offering micro-experiences to travelers and visitors to your hometown on Airbnb!
As always, I'm going to challenge you, invite you to go to Airbnb and look at the experiences offered and start thinking about how you can create an experience for visitors to your local area.
Sit down, ask yourself and write down all the things you love doing or know how to do that would create a great experience for someone visiting your area. For example, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area in the East Bay (the area across the bay from San Francisco). The experiences that I come up with would be something like:
- Kayak the San Pablo Bay and learn the history of East Bay Ports
- Learn how to cook a Soul Food Meal with the "Aunties of Oakland"
- Tour the Hidden Collections of Local Bay Area Artists
- Tour the Best Street Art in Oakland, California
- Glassblowing with a local artist
- Taco Tour - the Best Tacos in the East Bay
- Attend a recording session with a local rapper
- Discover San Francisco's hidden jazz clubs
- Discover Silicon Valley's hidden comedy clubs
- Learn Hip-Hop Bellydancing in one Day
Notice that the more specific the experience (i.e. Hip-Hop Bellydancing) the more appealing the experience. Try to create something that gives the guests a unique experience that they can't get anywhere else. Part of that uniqueness is you as a host . . . your personality, your knowledge, your energy will make the experience you create unique (never forget that).
How do you create an Airbnb Experience?
1. Create an account at the Airbnb website. After doing that, look at the experiences offered in your local area to give you an idea of what you can offer as an experience.
2. Go to "Become an Airbnb Experience Host" and read all the requirements on creating your experience.
3. You will need to submit your idea as well a provide photos and details about your experience.
4. It will then be reviewed to make sure it meets quality standards.
5. Once approved, you can set your schedule and prices.
6. Airbnb takes 20% of each booking which covers payment processing (allowing you to accept various kinds of payment like credit cards), insurance and customer service.
Let's talk about money.
Let's say you are offering "Learn how to cook a Soul Food Meal with the "Aunties of Oakland". You plan for this to be a two-hour session, one hour for the lesson in preparing the food, the second hour to leisurely eat the food and enjoy the company. You plan to charge $39 per person for the food lesson and $22 for everyone that doesn't want to cook but eat the meal. A family of 5 with 2 cooks would pay about $150.
$150.00
$ 30.00 - Airbnb's cut
$ 40.00 - For Ingredients
$ 5.00 - Energy, utilities, cleaning
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$ 75.00 - Profit
For two hours of work, you have gained $75.00. If you provide two soul food sessions in one day, you would have made $150.00 profit in one day. If you have more than 5 people per session, you would make even more.
This is an excellent way to take what you already love doing and getting paid to do it. Here's to your success my friend in making that extra money and stepping closer to financial freedom!
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Just FYI: Some of my posts contain affiliate links. That simply means that if you buy something through one of my links, you won't pay any additional costs, but "Telecommuting Millionaire?" will get a small referral fee that helps me pay some of my business expenses.
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