Experiences Make the Place
…and the Airbnb.
The Airbnb economy has shaken up the vacation rental world in more ways than one. One great way that Airbnb has shifted the vacation atmosphere is by opening up destinations that before weren’t as readily available for tourists. For example, Airbnb hosts in Africa earned $139 million in the last year. Previously, those who wanted to visit Africa had to book in pricey lodges or stay in luxury hotels. Now, the Airbnb millenials who often choose their lodgings for the experience over the amenities are finding themselves attracted to these formerly out of reach destinations.
But why now? We believe that it’s because Airbnb is accessing a unique type of vacationer, guests who are focused on experiences. Surely this is one reason that Airbnb rolled out their Experiences in the last year. Airbnb Experiences offer visitors unique ways to enjoy the town that they’re planning to visit. The type of guest hoping to book an Airbnb based on the surrounding experiences is looking for something unique over modern luxuries. This type of guest would look for certain special qualities when booking where they’ll stay on vacation.
Audit The Special
If we’re focused on attracting guests who want to stay somewhere special we should first take a look at our Airbnb as is. Assess the unique traits of each of the following points:
- The city: landmarks, museums, shopping, outdoor recreating...
- The listing: amenities, entertainment, decor, furniture…
- Local Airbnb Experiences
Once we’ve figured out our special assets we can emphasize them in our listing, our SEO, and how we adjust our space to attract future bookings. Emphasizing our current assets will not only help bring in a new type of guest, it won’t ostrasize our trusty current guest list.
Emphasize Unique Qualities
The goal of our audit above was to identify exactly what makes our rental special. Is it the rental itself or the location? Knowing our strengths lets us play to them, so if our location is prime but our rental is falling mute then we know where we need to focus. An Airbnb guest that is after experiences is going to want to imagine themselves enjoying our listing as they’re shopping through tons of potential places to stay.
To stand out we can update our decor, art, and furniture to more adequately reflect our individual style. It is also a good idea to add our local attractions into our written listing to give their imaginations more to work off of. The more a potential guest can see themselves staying with us, the more bookings will roll in. So shape the listing to be more vibrant and special, and the Airbnb millenials will come. If there aren’t any official Airbnb Experiences in our area then we should think about creating one ourselves.
These alterations to our rental can help bring in what is quite possibly an entirely new type of guest. This not only broadens our horizons, it leads to more income from the vacation rental.
