hosting an experience with airbnb (part 2)

Q & A on Hosting A successful Airbnb experience

Today, I am sharing a Q & A, which is my second post in a series about how to host an experience with Airbnb. I became an Airbnb experience host in 2018, as experiences are relatively new to Airbnb and I wanted to share some tips with you. You can read the first part here: How to Host an experience with Airbnb. One of my workshop guests, is now starting up an experience of her own in Venice Beach, CA and she had a few questions for me. I realized that many of her questions, I did not cover yet, so I am sharing them here with you. For me the benefits of hosting an experience has been threefold: I have gained exposure to new international clientele, and I have developed new textile designs. I even get asked to do private corporate workshops due to my work as an experience host. To find out more as this hosting series evolves, be sure to join my mailing list and receive monthly workshop updates. Read our full Q & A below! 

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K: I have a few questions about hosting my own Airbnb experience in Venice Beach. How ofern do you think I could host these? 
​H: I would say that you could host one time per week probably on the weekend, maybe Thursday nights to here in L.A. 
Also, according to Airbnb's tips are that if you price it a little lower you get more sign-ups and you can get more people. My pricing is fixed (since I use certain materials and factor in instructional time), and I have not yet experimented with a lower priced workshop, which would offer different things. 
Time of day: apparently evening more people sign up?! but i have been offering mornings, because that is when I personally feel fresh and creative and in the mood to create art. 
I am going to do one in the evening to see how it compares.
K: Ohhh evening is a good plan then. You know after what time?
Also on the weekends - what days/time?
Do you think that with me living in Venice if I could get a lot of tourists?
H: Yes, I think that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, early evening are probably best times.
Venice sounds like a fantastic, tourist-friendly location too. 
K: Like 4 p.m.? Or more like 6 p.m. when people are getting off work? Yeah, Venice is a great location. 
H: I think like 6 or 7 p .m. after work based on a couple of Friday night events that we hosted in Malibu. 
K: Gotcha. Makes sense. 
H: You know the cool thing is you could do like a couple of different times and see what fills up.
Oh yeah! To start
I can let you know too
H: And you know if you get an inquiry in one group that isn’t full then you can message that person and ask them to come at a different time, note: as long as you don't cancel or refund someone through Airbnb, sadly I late found out that this affects our cancellation rate- even though I had reached out to a participant about rescheduling for the following weekend. 
K: Oh I didn’t know it was this flexible, Sweet! I would love to hear about it.
H: Yes once you get your event approved you can add multiple dates and times to the calendar you can cancel ones that don’t fill up- (IMPORTANT: as long as no one has booked!)
K: Do you think the Airbnb app is enough in its own (along with a website) to get clients?
H: Well my last few events I got half from Airbnb and half from my website
K: Oh wow- well that’s awesome!
H: Also if you allow people to sign up until 24 hours before the event you will get surprised that there are like two people that sign up super late!
K: I’m sure where I live it will be even more active through Airbnb app
Ohhhh yes
H: Also another cool thing that happened is I did a private event for a group of professionals and they saw I offered events on Airbnb, then located my website.
K: That’s awesome ??
H: We hosted the event at a local hotel rooftop in L.A, b/c our guests wanted to eat dinner as well. I thought it would be an awesome vibe. My garden works better for summer nights, where it stays lighter longer- I think. ​

photo by Greg Bagues

H: What type of workshop will you be hosting?
K: I do marbling.
H: That's amazing! Do you marble on fabric?
K: Silk
H: Wow! I think people will love it. If you ever want to collaborate on a marbling workshop in the future that might be fun too!
K: Oh that could be very fun. I will definitely let you know how it goes! 
H: Good luck! Also, you don’t need a website to get accepted to Airbnb. I found that great photos and following the submission guidelines is key;) In my opinion, pictures and originality go a long way.
K: Perfect! I am so stoked.

Best of luck K, with your upcoming workshops! I am so inspired to perfect the art of experience hosting that I created a curated tribe on Tailwind. If you are a soon-to be experience host, you can request an invite to join our tribe. 
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Please feel free to leave your questions in comments below, if you are considering hosting an Airbnb experience.