Hosts become tour guides
Airbnb’s campaign to own more of its customers’ vacations expanded to Vancouver this week as it opened up Trips, offering independent tours and experiences in the city.
It is an extension of the so-called gig economy, which allows people to register a tour or activity with Airbnb that they are willing to offer to tourists and book through the company’s website.
Vancouver is now the second Canadian destination, after Toronto, where Airbnb offers the service. Worldwide, 1,800 Trips experiences are available in 30 cities.
Trips, which the company launched in 2016, makes Airbnb another operator trying to capitalize on the trend of attraction weary tourists seeking local, offthe-beaten path experiences when they travel.
“A lot of people, they’ve been to the museums, they’ve been on the double-decker bus tours,” said Dylan Morgan, a hopeful Airbnb Trips host based in Squamish. “They want to get more of a feel for either how their interests are represented in a city, or how the locals view the city.”
So Morgan, who is also an Airbnb accommodation host, is betting that enough trail-running enthusiasts visit the city to share his passion on three-hour guided runs through the North Shore or Squamish trails, at $57 per person for up to four people.
And he is one of 28 hosts offering experiences ranging from a matcha tea tasting ($63 per person) to a three-brewery craft beer tour ($51 per person).
“People travel Airbnb because they want a local and authentic experience,” said Aaron Zifkin, Airbnb’s regional director of operations in the Americas, and it is their accommodation hosts who often give them the experiences to “be an insider in that city.”
So Trips “is the first step into offering the entire trip, not just the accommodation,” Zifkin said, characterizing it as “our most significant development as a business.”
Signing up with Airbnb Trips has a relatively low barrier, Zifkin said.
Would-be hosts simply have to be over 18, demonstrate enough knowledge to take people on the experience they are proposing and be the type of person who will look after customers.
Hosts also need business licences, Zifkin said, and its website guidelines emphasize the need to research and abide by other licensing requirements where they’re operating.
The market for unique experiences is definitely growing, said Paul Melhus, CEO of Vancouverbased Tours By Locals, which offers personalized tours for small groups with 2,000 guides in 159 countries.
“The trend we’ve been riding is this move away from mass tourism and going for more customized (experiences),” Melhus said, where the focus is on things visitors want to do, versus the standard highlights being offered to 50 people on a bus tour.
Melhus is keeping a close eye on Airbnb’s Trips, but doesn’t see it as big competition for his company, from what he’s seen in other cities.
“They’re very much niche experiences,” he said.
They want to get more of a feel for either how their interests are represented in a city, or how the locals view the city.