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

[Nancy1588]

Maybe look around for a young Protege to Mentor and this could help you with your workload and give you some inspiration. You can always look for a coach to help you with pricing and realizing your worth. I love this business as these kind of restorative skills are dying as people just throw things out. Keep up the great work and think about inspiring others to do the same and keep your trade alive.

[Βασίλης-and-Ann0]

@Nutth0

  Inspirational post, Nutth ! 

We'll put the thinking cap on and as @Sarah977 mentioned (to paraphrase) there are plenty of ideas people,( especially young unemployed) on our island could come up with if they tried, which we believe would fascinate guests. We salute the 2 of you for your business heads & tapping into your local market needs.

All of our guests, so far, just seem to want long lazy vacations & the beach , especially if they have a young family.

They ask us for & we give them  tips and 'secrets' on how to cook certain Greek foods after they've tried  specialities in our local tavernas. Our favourite, 'Saganaki' ( the basic recipe) is seafood/fish+baby sweet tomatoes+parsley+feta cheese+basel+origano+salt, pepper,oil & lemon ( all local produce) in a clay pot, about 15 minutes in the oven.  Delicious with crusty local bread.

Whether we could develop a business/experience , well, we're not sure!

[Susan151]

---

@Βασίλης-and-Ann0 wrote:

@Nutth0

They ask us for & we give them  tips and 'secrets' on how to cook certain Greek foods after they've tried  specialities in our local tavernas. Our favourite, 'Saganaki' ( the basic recipe) is seafood/fish+baby sweet tomatoes+parsley+feta cheese+basel+origano+salt, pepper,oil & lemon ( all local produce) in a clay pot, about 15 minutes in the oven.  Delicious with crusty local bread.

Whether we could develop a business/experience , well, we're not sure!

---

Cooking like a Local is a BIG thing! People are making money doing cooking-demonstration classes the world over. The ones that sell are only a half day [cause most people don't really want to cook] and involve a trip to the market to buy the provisions and end with eating a meal, wine is mandatory!

[Nutth0]

Truly sometimes the thing you didn’t think people will interesting actually it was. So be do what you or your young unemployed loved... just show it out. 🙂

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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!

[Susan151]

---

@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!

---

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!

[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!