After Airbnb Axes 5000+ Experiences, What’s Next?

Airbnb isn’t saying much, but operators have some thoughts on the cancellations and the launch of Icons… and diversifying their distribution is top of the list

Airbnb website showing search options for San Diego, with filters and a section titled "Unforgettable activities hosted by locals" featuring images of a dog and people.

When Airbnb initially announced it was pausing new experience submissions last year, experience hosts and tour operators who rely on the platform had been hopeful of a new and improved return of the program. 

Instead, the company seemed to do the opposite: it made the decision to cut over 5000 “experiences” earlier this year, followed by the launch of “Icons,” the new Airbnb product which focuses on exclusive, invite-only experiences led by or featuring famous people from music, film, sports etc., Airbnb seems to be shifting its Experiences segment away from local hosts towards those with star power. Operators who rely on the platform were understandably frustrated — and concerned. 

So how are operators responding to the latest wave of cancellations from Airbnb? What does the launch of Icons say about the future of experiences on the platform? And what’s next for experience hosts and tour operators who’ve built or grown their businesses with Airbnb?

Cancellations a Wake-Up Call to Operators

For some operators, the cancellations are a wake-up call to improve their experience offerings and diversity their distribution beyond Airbnb. 

The Haunt Ghost Tours, which has listed experiences on Airbnb since they first started the program in San Francisco over 10 years ago, was part of the 5,000. When co-founder Wes Leslie received the message through Airbnb that two of his company’s four experiences were slated for cancellation, he appealed the decision, and managed to have one reinstated. 

“Honestly when I saw that email it was just a good wakeup call,” he said. “If anything it’s kind of inspiring me to get us on more [online travel agencies (OTAs)], I know there’s a lot of smaller OTAs that we don’t think about very often… we don’t want any single OTA to be a make-or-break thing for us.”

Also, he’s taking it as motivation to improve the quality of his tours. “In case Airbnb is going to do another round of culling, I’m trying to make our tours that are still there as good as possible, I want it to be a really ‘wow’ factor tour,” he said. “So for the short term that’s the plan: make it an incredible value that gets us a lot more great reviews.”  

Tour guide gesturing while speaking to a diverse group of people at night, in front of a colorful storefront.
Wes Leslie (left) is focused on improving the quality of his remaining tours to meet Airbnb’s quality standards and attract more positive reviews. | Photo: The Haunt Ghost Tours.

Ostensibly, the cancellations are a bid for quality control. “We regularly evaluate experiences based on the host’s expertise, the activity’s uniqueness and local relevance, and guests’ ratings and reviews, and remove those that continue to provide low quality experiences,” explained an Airbnb spokesperson.  

However, for Leslie and other hosts who’ve had experiences canceled, it’s frustrating that the requirements for improvement are unclear. His experience was removed “without really a lot of other information about what isn’t working about it.” 

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“Icons” May Attract Fanfare, but It’s Alienating Some Operators

Operators have been waiting for news from Airbnb on what’s next with experiences and when they’ll be able to list new experiences again. The latest news about Icons, however, has even those operators who’ve been loyal to Airbnb Experiences from the start wondering if there is any future for them there — and if they should leave the platform behind for good.

Chrissy Watts, Founder of Philly Experiences, has been with Airbnb since they launched in Philadelphia — in fact, she reached out to the company before it launched in her city to ask them to come. “I started Philly Experiences because of Airbnb Experiences,” she explains, and when she finally got an email saying Airbnb Experiences are coming to Philadelphia, she “never filled out a form so fast.”

Two women seated on a stage having a conversation, with "ARIVAL" logo displayed prominently in the background.
Chrissy Watts, founder of Philly Experiences, shares her journey starting a company to run “Hood Tours” in Philadelphia at Arival 360 | Las Vegas. Watch the full interview here.

Fast forward six years and Watts is starting to feel very differently, especially after the Icons announcement:  

“I’m so disappointed in Airbnb making a decision to not only randomly cut experiences right at the start of the summer, but also then partner with celebrities, like the timing looks really bad,” Watts says. “You partner with celebrities which would have been amazing because it brings so many eyes to the program, which is the goal.”

Watts suggests Airbnb should have used the celebrities to promote experiences rather than launching this new Icons product: “There’s so many people who’ve never heard of experiences, including [Airbnb] guests.”  

Although Watts hasn’t had any of her own experience listings canceled yet, she’s concerned. “It’s so scary not being able to rely on an amazing platform that shifted the entire travel industry forever,” says Watts. “We will never not know Airbnb.” 

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Airbnb Losing Their Community, Losing Ground to Other OTAs

“I wouldn’t have a business without Airbnb,” says Justin Steele, Founder of Local Sauce Tours, who started running tours on Airbnb Experiences in Sydney Australia in 2018. In addition to being an early adopter of the platform in Australia, Steele has also volunteered as a Community Leader for Airbnb Experiences, to foster community, organize meetups and so on for the past five years. 

“It doesn’t bode well for the community,” says Steele in regard to the cancellations, “and it’s a bit embarrassing as a community leader how [little] news we got and the lack of information we’ve had to pass on.” Steele explains that while some of the reasons for the cancellations were fair — the quality of a listing’s descriptions and photos not meeting guidelines, for example — many were unclear.  

“It was all very confusing, poorly done, not how you build community, which is what I’m there for for Airbnb,” says Steele. “It really makes you lose any kind of motivation to help Airbnb with their community initiatives.” 

For the many community leaders in Steele’s network, the feeling is similar. “We’re all frustrated about it because we’ve provided Airbnb with all kinds of advice, suggestions for improvement. They’ve had so much opportunity to take feedback from community leaders,” he shares. And yet, it seems it’s all to no avail. “They’ve shown that they can adapt and they can create something pretty cool pretty quickly when they need to but they haven’t done that on experiences for over four years now, and it’s disappointing… they’ve lost their community almost.” 

In addition to losing their community, the cost of inaction on Airbnb’s part appears to also be a loss of market share to other OTAs. Steele shares that his Airbnb Experiences bookings have gone from 60% of bookings in 2019 to around 25% today. 

Line graph showing fluctuations in Airbnb bookings from January 2018 to January 2024, with a significant drop in 2020 and partial recovery afterwards.
Bookings on Airbnb for Local Sauce Tours have failed to return to pre-pandemic levels (January is peak season in Sydney, Australia, where they’re located). | Chart courtesy of Local Sauce Tours.

“They could be so much bigger if they just kept at it,” he says. “Instead they’ve lost all that market share to GetYourGuide, Viator.” It’s a loss he laments for several reasons, not least of which is Airbnb’s relatively lower commission rate (20% vs. 25-30% with GetYourGuide and Viator). But he also believed in what Airbnb was trying to do with experiences.

“I think they’ve killed a little bit of what could’ve been a golden goose for them, they had the opportunity to make experiences really something so much bigger and different from Viator and all the others,” he says. 

What’s Next for Airbnb… or Beyond It?

While the question of the future continues to hang over Airbnb Experiences, one thing is for sure: for operators, the news, while disappointing, is a wake-up call, and a reminder that it’s important to diversify your distribution efforts beyond a single sales channel. 

“Don’t focus too much on being angry at Airbnb, that’s not going to get you anywhere,” Steele advises operators. ”You’ve just gotta keep focusing on the fundamentals in your business, not putting all your eggs in one basket, that kind of stuff. There are lots of other platforms out there as well… educate yourself, and don’t just be that angry guy throwing your arms at the sky.”

Watts, too, encourages other tour operators and experience curators to look beyond Airbnb: “bet on yourself, build your website,” and educate yourself on more channels and ways to grow, Watts advises. “You’re probably destined to make way more money.”

Are you concerned you have too many “eggs in one basket”? Check out these resources from Arival on diversifying your distribution:

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