Isn't Airbnb limiting itself by rejecting some experiences?

[Olga44]

 Hi everybody! I've been a host for a few years and when I first saw that Airbnb is offering experiences I thought it was a genius, brilliant idea! I thought this potentially could bring as much income as rentals, and allow Airbnb to become a primary site, where everybody goes for ideas for entertainment. I thought - Finally, there is ONE place where soon I will be able to find all activities I need, I won't have to spend hours looking through various sites, my life just got so much easier!

As time passed I became curious why there are still so few experiences offered (at least in our area), it seemed like everybody should rush to Airbnb to share with others their talents, ideas, and knowledge. But for some reason this was not happening. I was wondering why? 

I realized why, when my husband's experience was rejected, on the basis of being a service, not an experience. My husband always loved to cook and to teach others how to cook, so we thought why not turn his passion into some additional income? The cooking lessons experience that my husband submitted  was defined as a service because my husband would be giving lessons at our kitchen, but at the guest's kitchen. We've also received an explanation of differences between services and experiences. It took as a day to come up with the description of the experience. We do value our time like everybody else. Wouldn't it make more sense to include this description BEFORE people start creating their experience?  

But this post isn't about the experience being rejected. It is about Airbnb missing on a HUGE marketing opportunity. Right now, there is no single site where you can go, and find activities happening in the area. This market is not taken yet. It will be soon, as this site is very needed, and it's only a matter of time until somebody will create a site like this. Perhaps the site has been created already, but still wasn't promoted enough, so not everybody is aware of it. By focusing on Experiences and rejecting Services (to me any service is an experience as well!) Airbnb is limiting itself. Why not incorporate services? This is what people need. If needed, some additional ratings can be created for more unique services/experiences, but why create a niche in the market, when the whole market can be yours?? 

[Anonymous]

@Olga44 From the guest perspective, a brand like Airbnb is at its most useful when it has a distinctive product, and a streamlined method for quickly finding the thing that brought you to the brand in the first place.

Airbnb has a very good platform for location-based searches of short-term peer-to-peer accommodations. That's what the brand is built on, and what it still means to most people. Fundamentally it is not, and is unlikely to ever be, a brand that people look to to find activities and services in their own neighborhood or to become a new social media network. It's a travel brand, and other than hosts it's seldom ever used by people who aren't planning a trip.

Your Experience idea seems to be only usable by locals, so it's not surprising that Airbnb found it ill-fitting for the concept. Most people who want an "everything in one place" kind of platform are using sites like Facebook, which seems like a better place to launch your service.