Airbnb, known for its house hosting services, has recently launched Online Experiences, the new and digitized platform for their previous service Airbnb Experiences which allowed customers to book and personally join a tour or adventure with hosts from around the world. As this service was placed on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Online Experiences is now available for customers to book and watch experiences from hosts globally.

The new online experience features lessons and activities that showcase the city, craft, culture and cause of each host from various countries such as Moroccan cooking, Japanese meditation and Tokyo’s anime culture through prerecorded or live videos filmed by the hosts themselves.

Through this platform, customers not only get to travel around the world digitally, but learn new skills and knowledge from each place. Some niche activities can be found here: guided meditation with sheep, personal astrology workshop, ricotta cheese making and even goal setting with an Olympic gold medalist.

Aspiring Airbnb hosts can apply and earn money by filming any activity of their choosing and uploading it on their “experience page.” Hosts can set up their experiences as often as they like with a minimum of only one guest as the audience. Currently, Airbnb has a number of hosts sharing their stories on their country or city’s culture and history, food and drink and outdoor activities.

Those who want to book these online experiences can simply go to their website. The booking process is similar to that of booking a house: Customers will be provided with information about the experience and the host, as well as guest reviews. After selecting a date of when you’ll be participating, you’ll receive an email from the host with specific details on how to join. Other experiences may require you to prepare some items or even ingredients for cooking classes.

The prices for each experience can range around P400 to P1,000 for the online experiences and usually last around one to three hours. All of this can be availed and viewed from any mobile device from the comfort of your own home.

Header photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

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