Airbnb Trips enters Singapore market
Visitors get to experience making Singaporean street food delicacies like soon kueh and watch dragon kilns being used
Airbnb has announced that it has debuted its Trips options in Singapore.
Trips — which gives users the option to book a local experience along with a place to stay — moves the company beyond a home-sharing concept, the company said in a statement.
The experiences on offer range from making soon kueh in Jalan Besar, to learning about how pottery is made in traditional dragon kilns.
Nick Soon, a “kueh evangalist” who gave up his insurance job and learnt soon kueh-making skills from his parents. He opened hawker stall One Kueh at a Time at Berseh Food Centre in 2014, and is one of Singapore’s first Experience hosts.
“Many people only see a certain side of Singapore — the modern metropolis that’s a high-tech economic and shopping hub — so they miss out on many of the things that make us tick, like our standards when it comes to that plate of noodles or understanding the stories behind Singapore’s hawker scene,” said Soon, 48, in a statement. “Food in Singapore isn’t just about how odd something tastes. It represents the way we live, how we think, and how we connect with one another as a community. It tells the story of our history.”
He added that he will share his parents’ story of how they were soon kueh makers back in the day.