Day 14: A host who enriches passion by hosting an Experience.

[Nutth0]

Hello everyone, my name is Nutth I am a fulltime host. I moved from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and renovated my family’s house to a homestay.  It has been nearly 2 years since I joined Airbnb. My listings are private rooms so I meet my guests in person including spending time with them in the kitchen or at restaurants nearby. After I finish checking in my guests, I always have some spare time left so I decided to join Airbnb Experiences.

The differences between hosting guests in your home and Airbnb Experiences is that to be an Airbnb Experiences host you have to submit an idea and the Airbnb team will look into it and approve your photos and the activity you would like to lead. I joined the first group of Airbnb Experiences hosts when they just started in my city. It took about 3 weeks before I got an email saying my experiences will be live! (Nowadays it only takes 2 days to get verified )

I host 2 Airbnb experiences. Firstly, "Follow a Monk's Trail to the Sunrise" which is a hike in my backyard that covers a mountain. Secondly, "Snap Chiang Mai with a Vintage camera" an introduction to analogue photography. The idea comes from my previous guest who enjoyed taking pictures in my garden. I host this experience at a time when my Airbnb guests go to explore the city. I then turn my garden into a studio and at the same time also introduce the participants of my experience to the neighbourhood which has the reputation as an artist area. Besides all the experiences that I host, I also enjoy spending some spare time doing some sports with my partner. 

Hosting Experiences does not just offer me extra money but it's a great opportunity as nightly rates in South East Asia are very low compared to the USA. Booking a room in my home and hosting experiences is quite similar but with experiences, I get to charge per person and not per night. It feels like I get more reservations without having to build a new room.

I get to learn a lot of things that help me improve my hosting skills because of the short timespan of each experience (only 2-3 hr.) I learned how to read the mood of people, and taught them how to be open-minded to each other in a limited amount of time. Luckily, most Airbnb experiences guests are friendly. After 5 months of doing this, I have found people who appreciate what I’m doing in daily life. The replies that I receive also ignite my positive hosting perspective again.

Just look around your home or your own daily activities and maybe you'll find inspiration into creating your own idea for an Airbnb experience 🙂

Me and my co host with Airbnb experiences guests

[Quincy]

Hey @Nutth0,

Lovely topic! 

I always find it very interesting to hear about Airbnb Experiences as I haven't seen that many people talking about it here on the CC. 

(p.s. I really like the photo:)) 

[Nutth0]

@Quincy  thanks for invitation me to the activity. Also big thanks for helping me corrected my gramma.

[Helen427]

@Nutth0

You bring back so many happy memories of when I used to host English Language School children from over the globe, including the delightful Thai people.

I got myself into a spot of bother though with the use of the word La Korn when I farewelled my French students  parents after a dinner in my home as it mean "Stupid" in French and "Goodbye" in Thai!

I had a great laugh about that one with a recent guest who is of French origin who also thought it was funny.

The joy of languages merging

All the best

[Nutth0]

Wow this is cool! I will use this when I meet my French or Canadian guests ( Who speak French ) ... But I will make sure I explain them first!

[Robin4]

@Nutth0

Congratulations Nutth, you have come so far in a couple of years, and I love your photography experience. Coming from the film industry you would have so much professional personal knowledge to pass on to people, many of whom would not have any idea what an analogue camera was!

My father was a keen photographer Nutth, and he started shooting 16mm black and white movie film  back in the 1930s. In 1952 he bought a  French CIG colour movie camera, and I still have those 16mm films, of my sister an I as children going to school, and the zoo........ in colour, although they are too brittle to play any more and unfortunately our 16mm projector has become lost along the way.

I am thinking about having these films transfered to digital, but Nutth, it would not be the same.

Good on you mate....keep the past alive!

Cheers.....Rob

[Nutth0]

@Robin4 I will do my best! To keep the past alive.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  I think the furniture refinishing idea is a really fun one. And Rebecca's suggestion of the postcards is great.

I don't think it's even necessary for guests to be able to take home what they did. You could have a little side business where you resold the upscaled furniture if your guests did a nice job on it.

I could envision it like this- You pick up small pieces, like a stool or a nightstand (a longer-term "experience" guest might be able to have time to do a bigger piece) for a few pounds. The cost of that, and the materials, paints, etc. used factored into your "experience" fees. Then you advertise refinished pieces for sale. When the piece sells, you take a photo of the piece with the happy buyer next to it and send it to the guest with the profit earned from selling the piece (minus a % for you being the middleman).

So not only would your experience guest enjoy the skill you teach them, they could have a wonderful surprise one day weeks or months later to receive a photo of their piece being rehomed and a little $ showing up in their bank or paypal account. Some may be inspired to start doing refinishing as a profession.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977careful, you are giving me an excuse to buy lots of vintage furniture, which is a habit I've had to strictly control!

Great business model though. I can definitely see it working. One would just have to think about is how to sell the furniture (Ebay sprngs to mind but I've found it takes much longer to sell things on there than it used to) and where to store it in the meantime...

[Nutth0]

Haha ... now you got an reason to buy more 🙂

[Rebecca160]

@Nutth0 Now you have gotten me interested in offering some experiences right here. I was not familiar with these Airbnb offerings, so I am glad to hear that it is a service that is successful for you and our guests. 

[Nutth0]

@Rebecca160 so glad so glad!

[Huma0]

@Nutth0

Great post and very inspiring. I will have to start thinking about what experiences I might be able to offer my guests.

I had thought about doing furniture upcycling/painting workshops as that is one skill set I have and I have plenty of materials for it. However, I don't think it works for Airbnb because my guests can't travel with furniture! I once participated in a workshop where they used cute little birdhouses which we upcycled and took home, but even those could be awkward if you're travelling. Perhaps I could buy some nice small photo frames (without the glass). If anyone has suggestions, do let me know!

[Susan151]

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@Huma0 wrote:

@Nutth0

I had thought about doing furniture upcycling/painting workshops as that is one skill set I have and I have plenty of materials for it. However, I don't think it works for Airbnb because my guests can't travel with furniture! I once participated in a workshop where they used cute little birdhouses which we upcycled and took home, but even those could be awkward if you're travelling. Perhaps I could buy some nice small photo frames (without the glass). If anyone has suggestions, do let me know!

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I have hesitated to post my one thought since it might not appeal, but here goes. How about upcycling furniture to be donated to victims of domestic abuse through a group that is helping them set up a new life? What do they need? What don't these woman, mostly with family need? Tables, chairs, cribs, toy boxes, small decorative boxes since we all love to live with beauty... I think your imagination is your only limitation. 

[Huma0]

@Susan151

I tried to respond to you before but the page kept crashing. This is a great idea. 

Before I could start doing any of this, I would need to figure out a few solutions to potential problems.

1. Cost. Although I occasionally stumble across something with potential left out on the street or on Freecycle, this is rare and can't be relied upon. So, the cost of the workshop would need to cover the purchase of the furniture as well (the paint and wax are already expensive). We don't have yard sales here and markets selling decent vintage furniture are pricey. You can still find some bargains on Ebay though if you're willing to trawl through loads of listings and travel a bit to pick them up. I wonder how much people would be willing to pay if they are not keeping the pieces but they are going to a charity.

2. Transport. I sold my car a few months ago and have no plans to buy another, so no way of picking stuff up. I guess though that I could focus on smaller/light pieces that I could carry on public transport. 

3. Storage. I have no answer for this one at the moment. I don't have the space to store lots of extra pieces of furniture, even small ones, since I had my storage rooms converted into new bathrooms. Hiring a space in London is too expensive.

Like any business venture though, there needs to be a plan and, if it's a good idea, there are always solutions!

[Nutth0]

@Huma0 Yes I agree with @J-Renato0 @Rebecca160 the guest may want to know about ideas to upcycling and they may not need anything back just an experience they got. It may be life changing for someone!

[Huma0]

Thanks @Nutth0. I am definitely going to give this some thought. You have inspired me!

[J-Renato0]

@Huma0

Hello Huma... you say, "nobody travels with their furniture"! 

I have an idea, being it crazy or not here goes... 🙂 Maybe, that is the exactly the reason to create your experience! Let's say... people wants to know on how to upcycling/painting! You can put the guests/students to paint and update your own furniture, or some pieces of wornout vintage furniture that you buy to recicle and sell them for a very good price.

Meaning... the guests will pay to learn on how to do it... and they will at the same time recicly your pieces of furniture to practice!  Just an idea.

[Huma0]

@J-Renato0thank you and your idea is similar to @Sarah977's. 

I'm happy to let guest have a go on my own furniture that I haven't painted yet as, if they don't do a great job, I can easily repaint it. I would eventually run out of pieces to paint though (there's only so many coats you can put on before it becomes a mess and you start to lose the detailing), but it would certainly work for the first few workshops.

I just thought it would be nice for the guests to have their work to take away with them.

[Rebecca160]

@Huma0 I thinkpainting picture frames would be a great idea, so that experiencers could get and idea as to how to do upcycling, especially if you can find used wooden frames at flea markets to use for the experience. If you want to go small, you might consider getting postcard size thin wood pieces to decorate and then these could actually be mailed out as postcards. What a cool memory that would make of a trip! 

[Huma0]

@Rebecca160thanks for the cool idea. I love the postcards!  Certainly they would make a really nice souvenir.