Hi @Nick2000
I'll give you my experiences so far on local businesses.
a. For 8 years, I provide my Guests a hamper of local food produce samplers. My local business give me a wholesale discount to buy these which they are very happy to do. This is work on my part but I do as I have procurement skills, and it differentiates me from my competition. Hopefully the samplers prompt the Guests to buy more. I can't measure that unfortunately and not everyone wants to be digitally connected that would facilitate that. Some guests don't want to use their smartphone when on holidays, believe it or not.
b. I'm happy to have local businesses brochures in my house in my Visitor Guide.
c. I utilise the Airbnb guidebook app, but I don't know how to measure its usage. I've set up lots of local business information on there. Quick and easy to do.
d. I provide a curated list of favourites (and there's definitely no kickback) and it ranges from local businesses and further afield. I've personally tried them all and I don't tell the business I'm reviewing either. I only put on there what I think is good. It gets sent to the guests a few weeks before by me.
What have I learnt?
1. I don't think Local businesses would pay to place their business with airbnb. Happy to give out their brochures, if they have one! The ones I deal with aren't even interested in providing an 'offer' to incent my guests. I've tried, and it doesn't have to monetary, but a promo item or an extra whatever. Probably because it's not measurable, but I know it will work as I have guests asking is there an offer...
2. The visitor guide i indicated above GETS the most usage out of all. I know cause its a mess everytime i go in to cleanup. So the old fashioned visitor guide still works (as long as its current).
3. The favourites list is definitely used for the upfront planning as the guests ask and comment on it to me.
4. Host independence, no kickbacks and having a unique differentiator from other hosts is important to me. So I'm not really interested in subscribing too or having access to a bunch of local businesses that I can't guarantee the quality on when I haven't been involved in a review. My value add is recommending. The more you standardise something the less unique it becomes.
So hope these insights help you.
I'm in the product development business myself, and I know how important it is to get insights to try and solve real customer problems. Not sure your thoughts are solving a real problem for who yet... Apply some Human Centred Design principles might help you get there.
Best,
MK