Airbnb takes its holiday add-ons, Experiences, online, offering virtual coaching, cooking demos and adventures
- Company thought about how it could ‘allow people to form human experiences online’, and came up with virtual sessions offered by its hosts
- From the comfort of your home you can train with an Olympic athlete, make sangria with drag queens, and meditate with a Japanese Buddhist monk
Much to the dismay of adventure seekers and wanderers, travel is not advised by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention or most other health authorities around the world right now.
Luckily, Airbnb has devised an alternative for those looking to have worldly experiences from the comfort of their home.
The accommodation booking company’s “Experiences” normally give travellers unique tours of new cities, group hikes, up-close animal encounters or personal cooking demos, among other things. But in the absence of opportunities for personal contact, Airbnb has come up with a new idea: Online Experiences.
Have you ever wanted to meditate with a Japanese Buddhist monk? Learn how to cook Mexican street tacos with a professional chef? Set fitness goals with an Olympic gold medallist? How about a virtual visit to a goat rescue?
All of this and more is possible, thanks to the power of the internet.
“As people weren’t able to travel any more, we looked at, ‘How could we kind of allow people to forge these human connections online?’” says Sam Randall, a spokesman for Airbnb. “This is a way for hosts to connect with a global community of guests online and make some extra money.”