Airbnb not just for renting accommodations anymore
Time with designer one of many ‘experiences’ offered
A few hours spent touring a musty labyrinth of vintage dresses and pants in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley might not seem like a vacation activity, but it was heaven to a handful of visitors on a scorching hot day just before Halloween.
Forget typical fare such as spotting names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, these women had shelled out $263 for an “experience” orchestrated by Airbnb: Four hours of face time with Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant, who took them on a pilgrimage to the storage-and-rental behemoth Western Costume Co.
For the tour’s 10 participants, spending a morning basking in Bryant’s presence, touring where she works, learning her research methods and hearing candid commentary on what stars including January Jones are really like was priceless.
And it came with personalized styling advice: The tour included vouchers for items from Bryant’s 1950s-inspired fashion collection at Unique Village, a nearby boutique.
“Any chance I can talk about costume design, I’m happy and excited to do that,” Bryant said by phone after the event.
“I love it that people are still so excited by the show,” she said.
Last November, Airbnb — which famously disrupted the hotel and hospitality industry when it launched in 2008 with the idea that people could make some side cash by renting out their homes — began offering what it calls “experiences” via its Trips program. These are niche adventures in the company’s major markets that allow renters to avoid what Trips vice-president Joe Zadeh calls the “cookie-cutter” vacation experience. Instead, he says, Airbnb customers get “an opportunity to connect with the people and places that make a city tick.”
Originally available in 12 major markets, including exotic locales Havana and Seoul, the program expanded quickly. To date, there are more than 3,100 active experiences on the platform across more than 40 cities, 26 countries and six continents, with solo travellers and millennials being the most enthusiastic patrons.
Some experiences are more glamorous than others — a chance to go shoe-shopping with Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker in Manhattan sold out in a matter of hours — while the company’s solid performers are adventures with food or wine themes, such as a sailing trip around Barcelona featuring a complement of tapas. Zadeh said that the most popular experience in Los Angeles is a $33 hike to the Hollywood sign with a combination tour guide and actor.
For her part, Bryant said that she will participate in another Airbnb experience in the spring, when she launches her second collection at Unique Vintage.