Airbnb Experiences are unique activities—from historys tours to surf lessons—led by local hosts who've built expertise and community around their craft. I joined as Product Marketing Lead in August 2016 to help launch and scale this brand-new business on the Airbnb platform.
As a team, our mandate was to grow supply and demand in parallel—recruit and onboard hosts across dozens of activity categories in hundreds of cities, then market the experiences to both travelers and locals looking for things to do off the beaten path.
After over a year of planning and incubation, we announced Experiences at that year's Airbnb Open in downtown Los Angeles.
I led product marketing for the initial launch and every major category that followed—including Concerts, Restaurants, Surfing, and Adventures—developing bespoke positioning, creative assets, and media partnerships for each. Every launch was integrated prominently within Airbnb's site and app, and landed in cultural conversation through proactive press moments.
To drive reach and credibility, I developed strategic partnerships with VICE, Mastercard, World Surf Leage, GoPro, Blue Apron, and Flipboard, ranging from branded Experience concepts to exclusive offers and co-marketed bundles.
Alongside category launches and partnerships, I owned the marketing function from a planning standpoint, inclusive of quarterly marketing plans, budgets, and metrics reporting. By the time I left in August 2019, Experiences had grown from zero to 50,000 hosts across 1,000 markets generating $100M in ARR.
