We’re excited to share an excellent opportunity for tour operators to showcase their offerings to Airbnb’s global audience and expand the reach of their business.

We’ve put together this guide with the details on:

Get started in Bókun with our 14-day free trial — no credit card required!

How to enrol in Airbnb’s Experiences

Applying for Airbnb’s Experiences is simple, but before signing up, review its quality standards and requirements to understand the criteria and ensure compliance.

The key takeaway is that Airbnb requires Experiences to meet its three pillars of quality — expertise, insider access, and connection — ensuring premium, memorable experiences for users.

Types of Airbnb Experiences

Airbnb Experiences typically fall into 6 categories, with 23 subcategories:

  • Food & Drink: Food tours, cooking classes, tastings, dining experiences
  • History & Culture: Landmark tours, museum tours, cultural tours, welcome experiences
  • Nature & Outdoors: Outdoor experiences, water sports, flying experiences, animal experiences
  • Art & Design: Gallery tours, art workshops, architecture tours, shopping & fashion
  • Entertainment: Concerts, theater & dance, nightlife, games
  • Fitness & Wellness: Workouts, wellness, beauty

What kind of Experiences are not allowed?

Some of these might seem obvious, but here’s Airbnb’s comprehensive list of prohibited Experiences:

  • Any illegal activities. This includes drug distribution (even where legal), activities violating local laws, and unauthorised business operations.
  • High-risk or potentially dangerous activities. These include bungee jumping, cliff diving, skydiving, sky-swinging, wing suiting, and kitesurfing.
  • Experiences involving firearms or projectile weapons without proper licensing and insurance.
  • Any discriminatory activities, such as Experiences that exclude guests based on protected characteristics like race, gender, or religion.
  • Animal interactions or performances, or any activities that cause animals stress or discomfort. This includes elephant rides, big cat selfies, dogsledding, dolphin swimming experiences or shows, shark cage diving, circus acts, and exotic animal cafés.
  • Experiences involving sexual content. This includes sexually explicit performances and adult-oriented entertainment.
  • Political activities. This includes direct campaigning, political fundraising, and partisan political actions (educational political content is allowed).
  • Experiences using unauthorised content (e.g., copyrighted music, videos, or materials without proper licensing or permission).
  • Experiences that include overnight stays (unless part of the Airbnb Adventures program).

Airbnb also prohibits undefined Experiences, including those with open-ended itineraries or unclear plans or descriptions.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Already have Airbnb Experiences?

Connecting your existing Airbnb Experiences to Bókun is simple. Go to the Bókun Extranet, find Airbnb in the Marketplace, and click “Connect now.”

You’ll be directed to Airbnb to log in, then automatically returned to Bókun to link your products.

2. New to Airbnb Experiences?

Ready to reach a wider audience? Register your interest with Airbnb through this link.

After submitting your information, Airbnb will contact you within 4–5 weeks to let you know if your Experiences have been approved. Once approved, you’ll be able to map your products in Bókun.

Note: New experiences must meet Airbnb’s criteria — a 4.8+ rating on other platforms, a maximum of 15 guests, and must be fully guided.

Airbnb commission fees & payments

Airbnb takes a 20% commission from each booking made through its platform.

This commission fee is comparable to what most other online travel agencies (OTAs) like Viator and GetYourGuide charge, making it a fair rate.

Airbnb automatically issues payouts within 24 hours of hosting your Experience and sends the funds to your connected payment method.

Bókun tips for designing standout, attention-grabbing Experience listings

You’ll need to put on your creative cap to design listings that truly stand out and win customer bookings.

Here are a few tips from our team:

  • Craft catchy, unique titles. Be descriptive, use action words, and highlight what makes your Experience unique — but keep it short and sweet (under 50 characters). For example, if you offer kayak tours with optional wine or champagne afterwards, you could title your Experience, “Romantic Sunset Kayak Tour with Wine Tasting” (vs. the plain “Sunset Kayak Tour”). This extra flair helps you appeal to couples, who are the most likely audience to book this type of experience.
  • Showcase high-quality photos from past Experiences. Aim for at least 5 to 7 photos that capture genuine moments, happy guests, and exclusive locations. Mix professional shots with authentic guest photos to build trust, and ensure each image tells part of your Experience’s unique story.
  • Write a detailed, engaging description. Start with a compelling hook, use sensory language, and emphasise what makes your experience special. This is where you can also highlight your unique skills and expertise — share personal stories or explain your qualifications.
  • Optimise duration and group size. Try to keep your Experience within 2 to 4 hours (the ideal timeframe for most guests), limit group size to 6 to 10 people to create intimate connections, and offer private booking options for families or special occasions.
  • Set strategic pricing. Research competitors and factor in all relevant Experience costs. Many teams start with introductory rates to build a customer base and garner positive reviews, then adjust rates as their business grows. Seasonal discounts can also help during slow periods or for filling last-minute bookings.

After you secure bookings, delivering exceptional guest experiences is key to earning stellar reviews, repeat customers, and growing your business.

Here are a few tips for sweeping guests off their feet:

  • Create Instagram-worthy photo-ops. Choose unique or picturesque locations and consider providing props to make photos even more memorable. Encourage guests to post and tag your brand to build your social presence.
  • Add personal touches. Welcome guests when they check in (you could even greet them with snacks or a beverage!) and send thank-you follow-ups after their visit. It’s a great opportunity to invite them back, offer a return discount, or request a review.
  • Be flexible and allow room for spontaneity. Plan for bad weather and have a backup plan in place. For physical Experiences, like rock climbing or hiking, accommodate different ability levels so everyone feels comfortable.
  • End on a high note. Wrap up with a memorable conclusion or send guests home with a small memento. It naturally encourages reviews and fosters long-term loyalty.

Bókun’s integration with Airbnb

Bókun has integrated with Airbnb to help simplify booking management for your approved experiences.

Previously, tour operators had to manage the Airbnb calendar separately, which was a tedious process. Now, with the Bókun and Airbnb integration, you can connect Bókun’s booking system with Airbnb and use our platform to manage bookings from all sales channels — website, Airbnb, other OTAs, partner sites, travel agencies, and more.

Once the integration is live, Bókun users can navigate to the Sales Tools tab or Marketplace, select Airbnb from the list of partners, and follow the system’s prompts to link the platforms.

This integration provides best-in-class API performance and seamless syncronisation between Bókun and Airbnb. New reservations from Airbnb’s platform are automatically routed to the Bókun booking calendar, and this calendar feeds availability back to Airbnb to prevent overbookings.

This connection gives tour operators centralised control over bookings and improves operational efficiencies — no more wasting time copying over reservations or correcting overbookings!

The integration also enables more robust reporting, as tour operators can effectively aggregate their booking data from Airbnb with analytics from other sales channels.

Bókun even includes a native reporting dashboard where you can measure bookings and revenue by sales channel, product, time of year, and more, to learn more about your successes and apply those insights to your growth strategies.

However, the benefits of this integration don’t end with centralised booking and availability management. Let’s talk more about our solutions below.

Getting started with Bókun & Airbnb

Bókun provides top-rated booking management software for tour and travel experience providers. Our all-in-one tour operator software includes a complete range of features to manage operations.

Beyond booking and availability management, Bókun includes channel management, access to the Bókun Marketplace (our partner network with 27K travel businesses), resource management, CRM, business intelligence reporting, and more.

We’re a Tripadvisor brand and partner with various OTAs beyond Airbnb: we’re a preferred Viator partner, GetYourGuide premium connectivity partner, and Google Things to do partner, offering our customers special benefits when expanding their online presence.

We work with thousands of tour operators and activity businesses across 85 countries, offering scalable solutions to support all business sizes. We’ve helped small teams digitise their business, increase direct bookings, and explore online sales channels — and we provide more personalised consulting for our enterprise users to explore tailored growth plans.

See how these teams have grown with Bókun:

You can also check out Bókun reviews to learn why customers rate us 4.8 stars.

See how Bókun can transform your business with a 14-day free trial of our tour operator software — no credit card required!

Related reads: