Stuck at home, wishing you could get away for a vacation to an exotic place?
Airbnb, like many of the hotel chains they compete with, wants you to travel.
But as long as cities remain on lockdown, how can you getaway?
Well… Airbnb has come up with a way to whet your appetite as you while away the hours in your home office surfing the internet.
It’s called Experiences and they can be found on the Airbnb webpage.
Experiences are the next best thing to visiting that city in a far off land, like New Orleans.
Actual tour guides take you on a tour of your favorite destination from the comfort of your sequestration.
For a fee, you can set up tour or a take a class with a professional through a Zoom video call.
Who’s the kind of traveler Experiences is aiming at?
We asked New Orleans and Company’s Chief Marketing Strategist Mark Romig:
“The New Orleans visitor, whether they’re staying in a hotel or a short term rental, is the experiential visitor. It is someone who wants to come to the city and get into what we do as locals.”
Romig says this is not for the tourists who just sit by the pool and read a book.
“They want to get out into the French Market, they want to understand our culture, and they want to get into our open spaces, our parks, and to enjoy the restaurants, and really get into the city as we would as locals.”
Experiences feature actual guides, like the person who would take you and others on a late-night walk by a cemetery or bike tour riders showing the Garden District, or a cooking class on how to make crème brulee or Crawfish Monica.
There are fees involved for each Experience and they do vary widely.
And although an Airbnb Experience won’t replace actually traveling, it can satisfy your wanderlust about a place you want to go and it’s also a good primer that shows you a city from the ground level.
